Economic Development Day (11/16/2025)
- jamesonstephens
- Jan 23
- 2 min read
Class Day #3, hosted by AUM, was a great day with lots of group work for the students to get to know each other better. A huge thanks to Dr. Rhea Ingram, an award-winning marketing professor at AUM, for hosting the class day at their college of business and providing dinner through her program. She also welcomed our students to campus and gave her insight on what makes AUM a special place.
After Dr. Ingram spoke, we wanted to open the class with a fun debate to get warmed up. We separated the students into 2 categories, morning people vs. night owls. Each side formulated an argument on why their way was the better way, and then they selected 3 speakers to argue their points. With some strong points and a passionate closing argument, the night owls were the winners! Their prize? First dibs when the pizza arrived.
One of the judges for our debate, and the main speaker for class day, was up next. We were so blessed to have Frank Robinson, Montgomery's Director of City Development, be with us for class. He split the group into four groups and then led them through an activity that gave the students insight into what it looks like to be involved in a city's economic development. Each group was given money to spread around to different priorities in the city. They had to make tough decisions on how many resources to allocate to the city's education, streets and infrastructure, public safety, and several other areas. It was great to see the students have to communicate with their group, share their beliefs to the entire class, and think outside the box to solve issues that Mr. Robinson was throwing at them.
To end the class, we had a discussion about the service project the students want to undertake. We can't give any details quite yet, but we are very excited about the direction it is heading. Our January class day will be spent working together to take the next steps in accomplishing the students' project. More to come on all of that!
Frank Robinson, Director of City Development in Montgomery, had a great presentation to the class followed by an activity that had the students work in groups to learn how a city runs behind the scenes.
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