Description of the NPD Scholars Program
The UNT New Product Development Scholars Program provides an exceptional educational opportunity to build a better professional future for the students and graduates it certifies.
Admission will be granted on a competitive basis, and only a relatively small cohort will be admitted in a given year. This small program size will enable to professors who are driving the program to give ample individual attention given to each student admitted into the program. Moreover, by keeping membership in the NPD Scholars Program small and elite, the Department will be able to generate the best possible apprenticeship (i.e., internship) and employment opportunities for its NPD Scholars while allocating more classroom or extracurricular attention to the new product- or service- related ideas of entrepreneurially-oriented NPD scholars.
The NPD Scholars Program provides students with an exclusive opportunity to acquire, develop, and refine the knowledge, skills sets, and experiences required to successfully develop and introduce new products and services. NPD Scholars will earn the opportunity to apply those same knowledge bases and skill sets in developing their own ideas – perhaps even pursuing your own product development dreams! NPD scholars will prepare plans for bringing those new products to market, and, hopefully, even receive the chance the implement those plans.
This knowledge, these skills sets, and the promised experiences will be developed through a suite of four NPD related courses and one practicum:
- New Product Development (MKTG 4320)
- Product Planning and Brand Management (MKTG 4330)
- Marketing Research (MKTG 3710)
- Another marketing elective of your choice - subject to approval of NPD Program Director
- A Practicum course, wherein you will work as a paid “apprentice” for a firm involved in new product or new service development (MKTG 4800)
NPD scholars will learn and then do what it takes to succeed, and quite possibly to succeed beyond in the world of new product development at levels that would now seem beyond realistic expectations. NPD scholars will learn the tools and techniques for understanding consumers and business buyers, their wants and needs. NPD scholars will learn market trends, as well as how to follow those trends in the future. NPD scholars will learn the key concepts and essential processes, i.e., the new product fundamentals, involved in managing brands and new products after either has been launched. They will also learn how best to manage uncertainty and make sound business decisions under conditions of uncertainty. The acquired skill sets and tools can then be applied by certified scholars in either their own entrepreneurial ventures or at their jobs in the corporate world.
Upon admission to the Program, NPD Scholars will have earned the opportunity to interact with similarly minded professionals in the New Product Development field by attending seminars, making site visits, participating in apprentice (i.e., intern) programs, and through other related forums.
In addition, NPD scholars will have earned the chance to try out these newly-acquired knowledge and skills sets in a hands-on live business situation through the practicum course. We like to call this the “apprenticeship” part of this program, and we labeled it as such before Donald Trump borrowed the term!
And finally, after completing the program, you will have earned an NPD Scholars Certificate, and likely, several attractive employment options. Upon graduation, NPD Scholars will have at two clearly defined career options to pursue. One is to follow an entrepreneurial path. It is the Donor’s hope, actually, his dream that many NPD scholars will end up pursuing their own dreams by developing and eventually marketing their own ideas for products and services. The other clearly defined career path is to begin your professional career in a New Product Development position with a traditional corporation. This, too, is a logical career route insofar as every – and we mean every – company has a constant need for new product development. Fortunately, the NPD Scholars Program is structured to provide apprentice/internship opportunities that will facilitate our scholar’s successful pursuit of either career path.
Once you are admitted into the NPD Scholars program, you begin by taking the courses shown above. If you have already taken one or more of those courses, that course completion can be applied immediately toward your program and certificate completion. Moreover, from the moment you are admitted you are eligible to compete for one of a growing number of scholarships that are exclusively available for NPD Scholars. Those scholarships are available exclusively for students participating in the NPD Scholars program.
The NPD Scholars Program will challenge you. But in part because it is so challenging, the rewards of completion are undeniably attractive.
Multiple prestigious scholarships are available exclusively to students in the NPD Scholars Program. Visit the Marketing & Logistics scholarships page for more details.
