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Senior Experience: Providing Real World Experience in Service to the Community
The College of Business Administration (CoBA) offers all students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience applying business concepts to real world problems through the CoBA Senior Experience Program. As a capstone course in the BS in Business Administration program and guided by faculty, Senior Experience (SE) enables students to gain practical experience without having to quit current jobs or stop other responsibilities they may have outside of school. The Senior Experience Trade Show event allows students to present their final products and outcomes, and is a rite of passage for all CoBA undergraduates just prior to commencement. Our MBA program offers a similar capstone course known as the Masters Experience Program.
Senior Experience has served nearly 12,000 CoBA students since its inception and the program has completed over 2,500 projects to date. The projects are completed primarily for regional business, non-profit, and government organizations, although national and international organizations have also participated. The projects help bridge the gap between the classroom and professional world as students transition from learners to business professionals. Senior Experience also provides problem solving and opportunity building for project sponsors. We are deeply grateful to our business and nonprofit partners for providing meaningful, real-world projects and for entrusting our students to deliver impactful outcomes for their organizations.
This Fall is a great example of the experience program. Approximately 250 students teamed up to complete 51 projects for sponsoring organizations from in and around the San Diego region. Notably, some 40% of this semester’s projects supported nonprofit organizations from within our community. On December 11th, we were delighted to host our Senior Experience Reception and Trade Show, showcasing the 51 student projects completed during the semester.
As just one project example, a student team had the opportunity to collaborate with our longtime partner, Interfaith Community Services, to develop a marketing plan for their new thrift store in North City, Kind Threads. Both the store and our students’ work were recently featured on ABC 10 News: .
We look forward to providing problem solving for our communities and learning opportunities for our students, well into the future. This Spring 2026, for instance, we have a need to engage with 80 businesses and nonprofit organizations for Senior Experience projects. If you are interested in partnering with a student team, please contact Sara Vaz at svaz@csusm.edu or apply online: .
Thank you to our community partners for being an essential part of our students’ learning journey on their path to success.