Business Capstone Proves Transformational for Students and Schools 

As student CEO of the Capstone project tackled by seniors at Molloy University, Brittany Donnelly discussed her team’s approach to working with hospice care and educational leadership. The students’ efforts lead to a plan for Long Island school districts to help support students, families and faculty members facing bereavement issues.  

The Capstone course, a “hard requirement” for graduation, is designed to draw upon everything students have learned during four years of coursework, according to associate dean Dawn DiStefano, who is also director of undergraduate programs in the School of Business.  

The project was carried out in the fall semester at the request of Hospice Care Network of Northwell Health, which submitted a proposal asking the Capstone students to consider three challenges it faced.  

The first two were appeals for fund-raising assistance, particularly on college campuses, and a desire for improved visibility through social and traditional media. 

The third challenge was to offer a “train the trainers” program connecting the Hospice Care Network’s children and family bereavement services with school districts or mental health agencies. 

Mary Gravina, the associate vice president of Hospice Care Network, said such a program can “teach the support staff in the school districts how they can offer and lead programs to support grieving children.”    

Donnelly, who graduated from Molloy in December with a bachelor of science degree in marketing and is now a merchandizing intern at Publishers Clearing House in Jericho, was praised for organizing and leading her fellow students. 

“I had to be on top of everything, ” she said.  

Her supervision covered adherence to deadlines and making sure team members were focused and working as much as possible on tasks aligned with their interests. It enabled the groups in the class to become a cohesive unit.   

“We all grew so close because we were spending so much time working on the project and connecting with each other,” said Donnelly. 

The Capstone course is offered to undergraduate business students in the final semester of their senior year, explained DiStefano, who has taught the course since 2015. She said that the students’ work draws on information they have learned in subject areas such as finance, economics, marketing, management and accounting. 

Graduate business students complete a seven-week version of the Capstone course.  

Class size is kept small, with the 15 to 18 students divided into three groups to answer the charges raised by the client. In the semester’s first half, students work on tasks in the three groups before uniting “across teams” in the final six weeks to create one program for the final presentation, DiStefano said.     

A client can also be approved for a Phase II project in a subsequent semester. 

DiStefano, who arrived at Molloy with a background in nonprofit management, often receives referrals from businesses in that sector. The Capstone program also enjoys a solid working arrangement with Molloy’s Office of Advancement, which yields other candidates. There is now a waiting list of prospective businesses seeking to participate. 

In the first Capstone class, DiStefano speaks with students about operational topics and introduces the client they will assist. Client representatives then come to address its mission and vision before DiStefano and the students meet for a debriefing.  

Gravina, the Northwell AVP, said the Molloy students were “incredibly energetic and very determined” in the initial meeting. Still, the complexities of hospice care, especially relating to child and family bereavement, was not one they had in their knowledge bank at the outset.  

“It took them a little while to understand who we were and what we needed,” she said. “It was brand new to them.” 

Gravina said there were other class times for progress updates as well as phone calls and texts to share information.  

In approaching the “train the trainers” task, Donnelly went straight to the top of the Merrick school district in which she was educated. She reached out to Superintendent Dominick Palma, Ph.D., who is also president of the Nassau County council of school superintendents.  

Dr. Palma expressed interest in the project and helped to facilitate connections with Nassau BOCES which helps local districts meet needs by accessing community resources. 

“It was incredible,” said Gravina of Donnelly’s outreach and being able to connect with Dr. Palma. 

Getting assistance to forge such connections is a necessity because Gravina’s unit does not have sufficient staffing to accomplish the task itself.    

Donnelly said she was excited, and just a bit anxious, about her meeting with the superintendent because she was “confident” in the “train the trainers” program and how it could be applied for bereavement using school district personnel.  

She said she emphasized the mission of the children’s bereavement program at Hospice Care Network and how it could help students deal with “the emotional aspect” of suffering a loss in their families or community.  

“We want to help the children and spread this to other schools and children in general across Nassau County,” said Donnelly. 

“I put the emphasis on how the children getting the help they need would not only benefit them, but it would also benefit their way of communicating with their friends and their schoolwork.”   

Donelly said Dr. Palma was receptive to the information she conveyed and “was willing to figure this out and how to go about it.” When she was asked professional questions about how the “train the trainers” program would work, she referred him to Gravina.  

The importance of the students’ efforts was made more evident as a Seaford High School student in Nassau County died in a car accident in January. The district was able to reach out to Nassau BOCES for assistance because of the work done by Molloy’s Capstone students. 

Gravina said she found it “amazing” to see how far the students progressed over the course of one semester. 

She said the “train the trainers” program is especially essential because it meets young students where they “work” for six or seven hours every day. School districts need “ongoing support and sensitivity of their staff to better support their children.”  

Witnessing the students’ final presentation, Gravina said, “It was like they were in a company’s board room.”  

DiStefano also received high marks from Gravina. “Dawn was so amazing in that she has so much energy and so much encouragement…Her encouragement was contagious. They put in an awful lot of time and didn’t think twice about the hours.” 

DiStefano said, “My job is transforming students to be the sought-out leaders of tomorrow, not just because they have qualifying skills, but because they have the right disposition to do so.” 

“They can be the ones to create the corporate culture that is so needed today.”