The intensive, two-day exercise in business consulting and analysis is one of three weekends that 14 students from UVM and 11 students from Concordia University will spend together focusing on business issues facing companies and non-profits in Vermont and Canada.

At Dans la Rue, founded 15 years ago by Montreal legend Father Emmett “Pops” Johns, students attempted to streamline the distribution of goods — the non-profit has a giant warehouse randomly filled with donations from the public. They began with a brief tour of the facility and then gathered background information. The shelter has annual operating costs of about $2.5 million, which includes the operation of a van that dispenses food (1.1 million hot dogs since 1988) and clothing to homeless children at night.

After completing a business analysis for Dans la Rue, a non-profit shelter for homeless children in Montreal, students in the MBA program’s International Case Analysis course were given a stuffed animal named Bunker. The hooded canine serves as a reminder of the work they performed for the organization, which they hope helped the children, many of whom have pets for companions and who dubbed the non-profit “The Bunker.”

See the full article in THE VIEW, March 23, 2007, by Jon Reidel