If graduate school cohorts had personality profiles, the students of the University of South Carolina’s Strategic Innovation Planning and Processes (SIPP) course might require an entirely new category: “professionally caffeinated planners with color-coded binders,” making any professor’s academic heart skip a beat—or in this case, it made one professor, Laura B. Cardinal, softly hum a Frankie Valli soundtrack.
“You’re just too good to be true…”
As Cardinal celebrates her 10th anniversary at the Darla Moore School of Business, she admits every cohort leaves a different fingerprint. But this one arrived making an impression before class even officially began.
“Since starting my academic teaching career, this was the first group of students who showed up on day one with every required material purchased and prepared,” Cardinal said, blinking while smiling in disbelief.
Known within the Darla Moore School of Business as MGMT 776, SIPP is one of two foundational courses in the SC Innovates® – Strategic Innovation Certificate, offered through the SmartState® Center for Innovation + Commercialization. It’s where big ideas stop floating in theory and start getting strategically road-mapped into reality. Taught by Cardinal, or simply “Prof. C” to those brave enough to tackle an all-day Saturday graduate class, this course dives into strategic planning in converging industries while unpacking the scientific, technological and innovation concepts that are driving tomorrow’s business decisions.
Another first for Cardinal was asking her students to describe themselves as a cohort. Their collective self-assessment reads like the world’s most productive brunch reservation: diverse, multidimensional, inquisitive, and substantive …with a side of chaos-coordinators, early-bird specials, and bottomless caffeine.
While the humor writes itself, the commitment behind this cohort is no joke. Half of the class drove more than an hour and a half—some from as far as Atlanta—just to spend Saturdays in a face-to-face learning environment on USC’s Columbia campus. In an age when convenience often wins, these students are choosing strategic immersion over sleeping in. That says something.
It also says something that 67 percent of the cohort came from STEM-related industries, bringing with them multidimensional perspectives from science, technology, and technical problem-solving fields. Add in professionals from a variety of life stages of parents and pet owners to career pivoters and seasoned leaders, and what emerges is a classroom less like a lecture hall and more like a strategic think tank with coffee cups.
“They share a special passion for strategy,” noted Cardinal. “And also, a desire to learn more about strategic decision-making in science, technology, and innovation.”
Translation: They understood the assignment. This cohort came to work. And work they did.
“They truly were thoughtful and collaborative and had enough preparation to make any professor feel like the chorus just kicked in,” quipped Cardinal and she hummed the next line in the Frankie Valli tune.
Not every cohort needs theatrics to stand out. Some simply show up early, fully prepared, and quietly innovate their way into becoming “unforgettable.” (Cue the Nat King Cole track.)