The Impact of Student Consulting Projects

December 12, 2024

The Bachelor of Innovation: A Unique Interdisciplinary Program

I graduated from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs with a Bachelor of Innovation in Computer Science and Security. This is an interdisciplinary undergraduate program that combines traditional and practical coursework to develop teamwork, innovation, and entrepreneurship skills. You essentially have normal degree requirements but, instead of electives, you have business and innovation classes — most notably ones where you act as consultants to real businesses to gain real-world experience.

How Consulting Projects Shaped My Career

I credit this program with helping me develop the skills and confidence that landed me here at Mesa. Without the time to commit to an internship, I found consulting with these businesses to be crucial in building a quality resume. I recognized the positive impact that this degree has made in my career and reached out to UCCS to see if Mesa could be a business that students have a project for, and we were selected! Below are the students from UCCS that have worked hard to successfully deliver a project for Mesa’s applications team.

Improving Accessibility: The VPAT Project for ODC

They worked to create a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template for Mesa’s internally developed website, the Operations Data Center, and provided recommendations on how to make ODC more accessible. These recommendations will be critical to the growth of ODC as a customer product and will provide Mesa’s responsible, reliable data in a way that is accessible to those that need it.

The UCCS Student Consulting Team

The team consists of:

Joseph Snedeker — (senior, computer science) — team leader
Victoria Merkle — (senior, computer science and security) — team leader
Lana Gillman — (junior, inclusive education) — team member
Leo Pantoja — (sophomore, digital filmmaking) — team member

Snedeker and Merkle have shown exceptional project management, leadership, communication, and organizational skills throughout the project as team leaders. Gillman and Pantoja have demonstrated effective communication, problem solving, and collaboration skills.

Student Reflections on the Consulting Experience

When discussing how they have felt about the project, Gillman wrote, “This opportunity has provided me with valuable, real-world experience in a field that I may not have ever had a chance to take part in as an education major.”

Merkle wrote, “Participating in the VPAT project for ODC has been an incredibly rewarding experience. It has allowed me to leverage my technical skills while gaining a deeper understanding of accessibility standards and their impact on users. Collaborating with Aubrey (Church) and the rest of the team has been inspiring, as we tackled real challenges and developed meaningful recommendations for Mesa. I couldn’t have asked for a better project to cap off my college career.”

Finally, Snedeker wrote, “This project allowed us to gain experience in working with a real-world client. we tackled website analysis, navigated Mesa’s bureaucratic organization, and developed a roadmap for ODC to be improved regarding accessibility. Working with Aubrey was such a blast, as she not only provided guidance, but a career path forward for those of us who were interested. This project has been an amazing opportunity for everyone involved and may even end up topping my resume.”

To learn more about a career with Mesa, visit our Careers page.

About the author

Aubrey Church is the Lead Applications Analyst at Mesa Solutions. She and her team oversee the implementation, configuration, maintenance, customization, and upgrades of all of Mesa’s enterprise applications.

Aubrey graduated from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs with a Bachelors of Innovation in Computer Science and Security.

In her free time she likes to obtain certificates and build websites.