The Sweet and Sustainable Impact of Alumni Engagement

Although one can never know the full ripple effect of impact when alumni engage with the university, Leila Carvajal Erker ’96 has a pretty good idea. As CEO and founder of CocoaSupply, Carvajal Erker hosted a WPI graduate student project.

“As a business owner, I know there are always ideas that somehow never come to fruition. I had long envisioned finding a better way to share with our customers our genuine assessment of cocoa farms and what we consider to be sustainable,” she says. “When WPI approached me about considering a project, I immediately saw an opportunity to bring these ideas to life. What began as a concept evolved into a magnificent sustainability scorecard, complete with detailed explanations of its methodology and use. WPI students delivered on my vision, and I couldn’t be happier with the result; the impact of the project has been significant for all parties involved.”

Carvajal Erker partnered with WPI’s Master’s in Operations and Supply Chain Analytics program, which gives graduate capstone students the opportunity to help solve real-world problems.

“During projects, students need to build on knowledge from their classes and go beyond to understand project goals, optimization, multiple criteria decision-making, software programming, and performance measurement,” says management professor and project advisor Joseph Sarkis, who co-instructed the class with Entrepreneur-in-Residence Micah Chase. Sarkis adds, “The solutions our students found were both creative and innovative.”

The impact on students from this type of alumni engagement is invaluable, as they gain practical industry knowledge and experience. “Not only do students come away with something powerful they can show employers, they also gain frameworks for future projects and the understanding that theoretical work sometimes requires real-world adjustments for a practical setting,” says Sarkis.

The impact on Carvajal Erker and her company is also significant. “Thanks to this wonderful team of students, professors, and advisors, we now have a tool to evaluate all aspects of the sustainability of the cocoa supply chain, starting with the farms,” she says. “The proposed approaches to addressing the problem were a valuable gain for CocoaSupply. Hearing questions and perspectives from outside our company helped us realize aspects we had either taken for granted or overlooked. As for the outcome, it was both practical and easy to implement.”

If you or your company are interested in this type of program, please contact Sarkis at jsarkis@wpi.edu for more information.