For the parents of most students, Family Weekend is about experiencing all that AU has to offer, from attending top-notch programming to spending time together on the quad.
But last fall, as alum and current AU parent Alan Gellman, CAS ‘86, visited his daughter, Olivia Gellman ‘25 on campus, he stumbled upon an opportunity.
During his visit, Gellman learned about Kogod in Practice, the on-campus consultancy that pairs students with various sized businesses across the US and overseas.
As part of the unique, hands-on arrangement, students provide real-life consulting in an arrangement that simultaneously provides experiential learning opportunities for the student, and pro bono support for the client.
It dawned on Gellman: his own business might be a perfect fit for the program.
Back home in Arizona, he serves as CEO of Wall Sensations, the small business he founded after moving in 2004 from the East Coast to Scottsdale—known for its desert scenery.
“I realized all the subdivisions in my new neighborhood were separated by these concrete walls, which is probably the most incarcerating feeling one could have,” Gellman recalled.
“Coming from the East Coast with these rolling hills, lush gardens, and the like, it was a very hard transition,” he said.
Wall Sensations solves that problem for homeowners by adorning properties with tasteful and decorative murals, sprucing up otherwise plain walls and surfaces.
More recently, though, Gellman has hoped to grow his customer base.
Enter Kogod in Practice.
This past spring, a team of five student consultants from Kogod took Wall Sensations on as a pro bono client.
Working with the company over three months, the Kogod team helped Wall Sensations sharpen its marketing and customer acquisition strategies. Eighty-five percent of the company’s existing customers, the team found, came from the residential sector.
As such, the student consultants recommended Gellman expand the company’s reach, scaling up its business-to-business marketing efforts to attract the likes of restaurant management companies, hotels, hospital construction firms, and real estate developers.
The support paid off, with Wall Sensations expanding into new markets and growing its client base.