Students tackle real-world challenges in project supporting McIntosh fishermen

By Lauren McDonald lmcdonald@thebrunswicknews.com

When students signed up for Bill Garlen’s upper level business class, they were unaware they’d be tasked with solving some of the most significant challenges facing fishermen in McIntosh County.

That assignment wasn’t mentioned until weeks into the spring semester, when the students at College of Coastal Georgia learned what sort of entrepreneurial endeavor they’d be graded on for class.

Garlen’s class has spent the past couple of months determining the feasibility of creating a co-op for a group of shrimp boat captains in McIntosh County. A colleague in the college’s School of Business and Public Management connected Garlen with the Community and College Partners Program, a nonprofit that identifies problems in communities and connects them to college programs that can offer assistance.

Garlen opted to make this a class project for his students to work on over the course of the semester.

“We’re trying to figure out if it’s feasible for them to do this co-op and just how to make it work for them,” said Rebecca Borchardt, a senior in the class.

The students will present their feasibility study and other findings at 6 p.m. Thursday in the college’s Stembler Theatre. The fishing captains and others involved in the project will be in attendance, and the community is invited to come out.

“We were asked to do a feasibility study, and this is the first time these students, although they’re seniors, have actually engaged in a real life, honest to goodness feasibility study,” Garlen said.

Shrimpers in McIntosh County who are part of the Gullah-Geechee heritage hope to form a co-op in order to improve and sustain shrimp sales.

The fishermen are trying to meet a large demand for wild caught shrimp, but they struggle to maintain the workforce needed. The shrimpers also hope to sustain the Gullah-Geechee culture incorporated into all they do.

“There’s a huge demand for seafood because prices of beef, pork, chicken and everything else has skyrocketed,” Garlen said, adding that seafood is often identified as a fresher, more affordable alternative.

Foreign markets create significant competition, he said, but wild caught shrimp are in the highest demand.

C2P2 enlists colleges and universities to assist underserved communities with technical support through student internships, classroom projects, capstone and practicum projects.

Michael Burns, founder and executive director of the program, said he has worked previously with Glynn County Commissioner Allen Booker to connect his organization’s mission to groups in need in this area.

“As a part of the way we do business, our community partners can call us at any time to ask for assistance on any project,” Burns said. “We’ll try to find somebody that can provide assistance.”

C2P2 looks for opportunities to connect college students, particularly seniors and graduate students, to help address community needs.

“We realized that they were a tremendous untapped resource of knowledge, hard work, enthusiasm and creativity and that given the opportunity students would love a very unique experiential learning opportunity that would cement their education and make what they’ve learned in the classroom real.”

This can also be great experience to put on résumés and mention in future job interviews, Burns said.

“We thought it was a win-win-win,” he said.

Garlen’s class has identified what some of the greatest challenges will be for the fishermen as well as potential paths forward.

To create the study, the students have researched and collected information on just about every detail of the shrimping business. They’ve researched fuel costs, boat operations, equipment, maintenance, supplies, wages, market prices and more.

Garlen said he’s seen the students commit themselves fully to the project.

“They’ve interviewed the shrimp boat captains,” he said. “They’ve had to research shrimp boats. They’ve had to learn what happens with a shrimp boat. They’ve had to learn about freezer boats versus ice boats — things that they never knew before.”

Staff members with the University of Georgia’s Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant program worked with the students to provide information about the numerous areas of their research. The students also took a trip to Darien to see some of the work firsthand and meet the fishermen.

The class split into numerous groups, each of which tackled a different component of the project.

Heath Sanders, who worked with several students to collect the financial information, said his group researched what is needed for these businesses to stay afloat.

“Really, it’s just what we need to break even and then possibly make a profit in the next few years hopefully,” he said. “And then even after that — what we can do to maybe market the brand also, even more than the shrimp.”

The students meet twice a week for a class that runs for only an hour and 15 minutes. So their work on the project had to spill over into hours outside of the classroom.

Miyona Davis, who worked with the financials-focused group, spent over an hour on the phone with one of the captains learning as much as she could about his businesses and the challenges he faces.

Making a profit and recruiting reliable workers were among the biggest struggles many captains said they deal with.

“They have to take trips, and these trips can be days, these trips can be weeks,” Davis said. “And you have to find people who are willing to be away from their family and willing to be on the boat.”

These are long-standing challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.

“I think the pandemic made it a little bit more critical,” she said. “Supplies would maybe be a little harder to gather. They take a little longer to get. People would get sick. They’d have to be cautious.”

This kind of project creates problem-based learning for the class, said Skip Mounts, dean and professor of economics for college’s business school.

“You don’t have tests, you just have a problem,” he said. “… It’s problem based and engaged, or participation based. It’s like the way work is.”

Problem-based learning prepares students to think like entrepreneurs, said Ande Noktes, executive director of the Art and Lindee Lucas Center for Entrepreneurship at CCGA.

“That’s what entrepreneurship is all about, really,” she said. “You get this problem, and then it’s everywhere. It’s everywhere you look, it’s everything you think. You can’t get away from it. They’re learning that for sure right now.”

And a big takeaway from the project, she said, has been that students at the college can help businesses with big challenges.

“If there are other local businesses that have something they’ve always wanted to do but haven’t had the mindshare to take it on, or they have some type of challenge that they’d like to get a group of bright students on, they should certainly reach out to the Lucas Center because we can connect them with the right instructor and the right class to help them tackle whatever it is,” she said.

Antonia Bashir, a junior in the class, said she’s glad she’ll be able add this experience to her résumé.

“This was a huge opportunity,” she said. “This is résumé-worthy. Because we’re on a level where we don’t have too much experience, this will really give us a one up.”

The project offered a look into what goes into running and sustaining a business, said Jalen Hill, a junior.

“From the outside looking in, you would think, ‘Oh it’s just buying a boat or whatever,’” he said. “But really, it’s down to the details. Something small can impact something big.”

Several students noted that they recognize the real-world impact of the work they’re doing.

“You’re kind of dealing with people’s lives,” said Andrew Stafford, a junior. “If we mess this up and don’t do well, they may not get funding.”

“No pressure,” Bashir added.

Republished with the permission of The Brunswick News. Originally published in The Brunswick News.