Students in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Business recently completed the first pilot of a new undergraduate capstone experience, partnering with Conagra Brands to solve a real-world business challenge as part of the college’s redesigned core curriculum.
The capstone, Business Strategies (MNGT 475), is the final course in the new undergraduate core curriculum, which launched for students starting school in the fall of 2025. The pilot brought together students, faculty and corporate leaders in a semester-long collaboration designed to showcase students’ career readiness while providing meaningful insight to the corporate partner.
“This culminating capstone experience allows students to apply and showcase the skills they have developed throughout their time at the College of Business. They gain impactful insight while working with a corporate partner on a multidisciplinary business problem, and the partner benefits from their fresh thinking and perspective,” said Kathy Farrell, James Jr. and Susan Stuart Endowed Dean and professor of finance. “The capstone and the first-year Introduction to Business class bookend our new curriculum with signature experiences with corporate partners that are unique to Nebraska Business."
The pilot capstone was led by Lisa Tschauner, assistant professor of practice in management, who is completing a Seacrest Teaching Fellowship this year while helping launch the new capstone experience. Through the fellowship, she is studying how experiential, corporate-engaged learning influences student confidence, skill development and career readiness, with the goal of sharing best practices and insights with other College of Business faculty as the new capstone scales across all its class sections.
“This course is intentionally designed to bring together students, faculty and corporate partners in a way that benefits all three,” Tschauner said. “Students are applying strategy frameworks to a real challenge, mentors are engaging directly with emerging talent, and partners are gaining insight from students who are not yet immersed in the organization’s day-to-day assumptions.”
Conagra Brands served as the inaugural corporate partner for the pilot, presenting students with a strategic challenge focused on its Banquet brand, a legacy frozen food brand, and how to modernize it for Gen Z and millennial consumers. Students worked throughout the semester in 12 teams, each supported by a Conagra mentor representing a range of functions across the organization.
Having worked with the students from the initial challenge presentation through final recommendations, Christine Galuski, director of business services at Conagra, said she saw clear growth over the course of the semester.
“I enjoyed getting to know the students and faculty and getting to interact with them,” Galuski said. “I saw growth in the way the students thought about the problem and how they went about solving it."
Galuski said one of the most valuable outcomes for Conagra was hearing directly from students about the company and its brands.
“The most valuable aspect of the program was getting to hear insights from the students about Conagra Brands,” she said. “There were a lot of great ideas and information for leadership to take back and share with internal stakeholders.”
At the conclusion of the project, the top three teams were invited to present their recommendations at Conagra’s Omaha campus on Friday, Dec. 12, delivering their strategies to a panel of senior leaders and participating in a campus tour. They each received Dean’s Coins on behalf of Farrell in recognition of going above and beyond in the pilot capstone experience.
The winning team proposed a strategy centered on establishing a partnership between Banquet and the popular mobile video game Clash Royale to engage younger consumers through gaming culture, digital engagement and collectible rewards. The team included seniors Devan Zahl, finance major from Monument, Colorado; Jackson Bangtson, management major from Omaha, Nebraska; Jake Kozak, marketing major from Gretna, Nebraska; and Awab Omer, management major from Omaha.
“My favorite part of the project was working with my teammates,” Zahl said. “Building friendships while learning from one another made it really enjoyable. We were able to push each other, collaborate and have fun throughout the process.”
Zahl credited the team’s mentor, Leah Muench, consumer care manager at Conagra, with pushing the group to elevate its thinking.
“We couldn’t have reached that point in our project without Leah,” Zahl said. “She consistently pushed us to stand out through thinking differently and being creative, which is why I believe we won.”
Each Conagra mentor supported two student teams, emphasizing professional communication, collaboration and creative problem-solving throughout the semester.
“The students who stood out were the ones who came prepared with questions, embraced the challenge and found ways to differentiate their thinking,” said Muench. “It was rewarding to see them grow and gain confidence over the course of the project.”
“It was a lot of fun,” said Cade Crowell, '21, IT systems analyst at Conagra who also served as a mentor. “Being only a few years out of college, it was interesting to see how the College of Business is innovating how they are connecting students with companies through experiences like this.”
The pilot capstone will shape its full rollout in the future, with plans to expand corporate partnerships as the experience is incorporated across all sections of the course.
"We're grateful to Conagra Brands for jumping in to be our inaugural corporate partner for this capstone experience. Their team was committed to offering a high-impact learning experience for students," said Farrell. "We've since added seven more corporate partners — and looking for more — who will be added to the rotation as we scale this experience into more sections of Business Strategies. By embedding real-world challenges, corporate mentorship and research-informed teaching practices into the curriculum, Nebraska Business aims to ensure every graduate completes their degree with the confidence and competence to lead in a rapidly changing business environment."
