David Knopf has been in the business world for quite a while since graduating from the Farmer School of Business at Miami University in 1990. He had various roles at Cintas for 14 years, then was VP of Sales and Marketing at IMX Solutions for another decade, before taking his role as president at Rooted Grounds Coffee full-time a few years ago.

So, you might be surprised a man of his experience found himself jealous of the First-Year Integrated Core students who presented their Client Challenge ideas to him. “I wish I had had this kind of experience as a freshman, because I was so excited about business,” Knopf said. “What they're doing for students here, I don't know if this is normal these days, but it's impressive. It's great.”

The First-Year Integrated Core is an eight-credit hour program comprising four classes required for all FSB students. In these classes, students spend the semester building key skills that they will need for upper-division classes and that employers expect FSB graduates to have. The Client Challenge brings together the knowledge learned through the semester.

Students in the fall 2024 FYIC cohort were tasked with looking for ways for Rooted Grounds to increase its retail capacity as part of its future growth strategy. More than 120 consulting teams of four to five students worked for four weeks on the project, before 10 finalist teams presented to Knopf and director of operations Dalton Clifford near the end of the fall semester.

Knopf and Clifford used the same phrase to describe their reaction to the presentations.

“I was blown away. The students really did seem to do a lot of solid work and due diligence. They did their presentations, and what they presented really showed that they put a lot of effort and consideration into it. For us as a company, we learned a lot,” Clifford said.

“I am just blown away. The kids, the presentation skills, the content, the listening. We did an MBA program years ago, and these first-year students were more on point. They listened more, understood the brand more, had more relevant research, and more creative ideas that were executable than the MBA teams did,” Knopf said.

The students said they grew in many ways through the FYIC and the Client Challenge.

“I feel like I learned a lot, and it was super valuable,” Finance and Entrepreneurship major Aspen Baynes said. “I think the more experiences you have, presenting, having an understanding of how to talk to people, and how to solve problems is valuable.”

“One of the biggest things that I think made me want to come to Miami was this experience of having the FYIC and the Client Challenge,” Finance major Patrick Sterling said. “Presenting in front of an actual client is so much different than presenting in front of your class and being able to back everything up that you say and present with confidence, that’s my biggest takeaway.”

“It was daunting at first, but throughout the entire process, I was reminded of the fact that it's not about how you start, it's how you finish. And I feel like my group did a really good job in making sure we followed through,” Information Systems and Cybersecurity Management major Grace Adeboyejo said. “At the beginning of this experience, I was really nervous about public speaking, but now I feel more confident being able to speak in front of a room of people I don't even know.”

The Honors team of Cameron Cooke, Kinzie Copenhaver, Anthony Hose, Anna O'Connell, and Alex Taylor, and the team of Brennan Cooney, Charlotte Giancola, Autumn Newman, Sienna Rice, and Henry Sevcik were deemed the winners by Knopf and Clifford.

“Even if you don't win, if yours is not the winning idea, there are things that, no matter what you say or do, someone will learn from you. And so, it's better to put your idea out there than shy away from it,” Clifford said. “I hope they learn that there are great skills in learning how to build, learning how to present information and bring information to the table, and that they'll be able to use that going forward in their careers.”

“Maybe I would be able to present like that in front of a group that big four or five years into my business career, and they're already doing it as first-year students, standing up, presenting with confidence, looking you in the eye, and really understanding a business concept and how to execute it,” Knopf said. “What they showed today is they have the skills and the abilities that will provide value to any business.”