Although I still have another month until I enter my 20s, I’m getting a taste of what the rest of my corporate life will look like, or so I think.

What started out as an unsure group of 14 students has turned into an evolutionary student-led company, never-failing recruitment tool and an ample amount of networking. Being able to be joint-CEO of the Barton International Group at Wichita State University has allowed me to partake in all of these outcomes, but any member you ask won’t say it was a cake walk to get to them.

Everyone understood going in that we would be forming, storming, norming and hopefully performing at high levels as a team. We held Wichita State’s Barton School of Business and its faculty’s reputation in our hands. We were faced with providing real results, or receiving real consequences.

And the Pace Quickens
After our success with working with Spirit AeroSystems at its new Malaysian plant last summer, the idea of the Barton International Group took off. Students showed interest and faculty members offered help. As we have started our second year of the program, we have a senior associate team (made up of 12 of last year’s members) as well as the new associates which encompass 17 fresh faces.

Just like a real company, promotions, demotions and firings are all realistic options. Each member understands this concept and works hard to form ideas, delegate instruction and create satisfactory results for the betterment of the Barton International Group. A little overboard? We like to think not. We know this is just a prelude for the expectations of our future employers.

What has been your most valued learning experience?

Words I never thought I’d hear: “You’re going to Malaysia.” The statement filled me with equal parts exhilaration and anxiety. When some fellow WSU students and I formed the Barton International Group last fall, we wanted to spread our wings. Still, I’d never envisioned a trip that required 37 hours of travel just to get to our destination.

On June 14, our entrepreneurial 14-member group embarked on a two-week trip to Spirit AeroSystems’ Malaysian facility. Our goal?  To advance Spirit’s efforts to create a unified, transglobal corporate culture. Our tool? Research using the McKinsey 7-S management model based on seven organizing factors – structure, systems, style, staff, skills, strategy and shared values.

Making New Friends
The employees of Spirit Malaysia embraced our effort – and us. They willingly answered our questions whether it was an individual interview, focus group, or job shadowing. We had access to everyone from C-level executives to cafeteria staff. Our most gracious hosts invited us out after work, even taking us to the equivalent of an American Dave and Busters.

Our strenuous 15-hour workdays and nightly reports taught me much more than any teacher, book or blackboard ever could. I left Malaysia with new skills: how to strategically approach a project, develop a consultant-like mindset, lead a group of students – and navigate in a foreign country.

Continuously keeping my mind focused on our final deliverable – a presentation to Spirit CEO Jeff Turner in August – offers insights to what life will be like after graduation. One thing I know now more than ever. The lessons will never end.

This learning thing’s a lifelong endeavor. One that will take you places you never imagined.

What’s been your most valued work-related lesson?