As part of her HEAL Fellowship project, Scaling Up, Serving More: Expanding Faculty Engagement in Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning, Dr. Mann is partnering with campus offices and academic departments to advance two core initiatives. First, she is developing workshops focused on community-engaged pedagogy to increase awareness, build faculty expertise, and support the effective integration of community-based learning into courses. She is also creating a shared resource library that will serve as a centralized knowledge base for community-engaged teaching and learning materials.

In addition, Dr. Mann is designing a framework to connect MSU faculty with a network of community partners and projects, making it easier to embed service-learning and community-based experiences into courses. Together, these initiatives aim to strengthen faculty collaboration and ensure that students gain hands-on learning opportunities that connect academics to real-world application.

The HEAL Fellowship also supports other faculty-led initiatives, including projects led by Dr. Elenice DeSouza Oliveira, whose work focuses on fostering a sustainable culture of human flourishing and student well-being across academic communities, and Dr. Peter Hosick, whose initiative advances physical activity as a vital component of student health and success through campus-wide wellness programming. Collectively, the HEAL Fellows’ work advances ��Ʒ���˸������� University’s mission to foster sustainable, intentional, and measurable approaches to student success, wellness, and development across the academic community.

Learn more about the HEAL Fellows

Dr. Chatterjee warned against impulse purchases influenced by digital promotions, recommending a 24-hour “cooling-off period” before buying items prompted by social media ads. She noted that economic uncertainty, shaped by tariffs, layoffs, and fiscal conditions, has increased consumers’ value-conscious behavior, making “quality over quantity” a prevailing mindset this season. She cautioned families to approach credit cards and “Buy Now, Pay Later” plans with care, reminding them that future payments represent real reductions to their current budgets.

During her visit, Nina shared insights from her journey of building a full-service agency from the ground up, emphasizing the importance of creativity, adaptability, and authenticity in today’s competitive marketing landscape. Her story resonated deeply with students, many of whom are preparing to enter the ever-evolving world of advertising and brand strategy.

Her efforts were recognized nationally when she was named a Top Performer among interns during one of the program’s most competitive weeks for qualifying leads. Throughout the internship, she also built proficiency in Salesforce CRM, using it to track client interactions and conduct in-depth opportunity research. Congratulations Grace on this amazing experience!

The boycott encouraged consumers to avoid spending at major retailers and instead support small, local businesses. The same group planned additional economic blackouts, including a boycott of Amazon from March 7-14. Nestlé from March 21 to 28, and most recently Walmart again from April 7 to 14. Another blackout can be anticipated for April 18 on General Mills.

Dr. Manveer Mann notes that while boycotts have occurred historically, broad economic blackouts like this are rare and hard to measure in terms of effectiveness. Research suggests that only a small, motivated segment of consumers usually participates, making large-scale impact uncertain. Ultimately, it remains to be seen whether this economic blackout will lead to meaningful change or be remembered as a symbolic gesture.

Dr. Chatterjee identified this trend as a response to economic pressures such as rising living costs and inflation, particularly among young adults. Dr. Chatterjee emphasized that loud budgeting not only normalizes responsible spending but also presents opportunities and challenges for brands. While businesses can leverage this trend to connect with budget-conscious consumers, they must be cautious about focusing too much on affordability, which could erode profit margins or attract customers with little brand loyalty.

Dr. Chatterjee also compared loud budgeting to conspicuous consumption, explaining that both trends serve as social signals. While traditional conspicuous consumption is about displaying wealth, loud budgeting showcases financial responsibility, particularly among Gen Z consumers, who are driving the trend. Dr. Chatterjee’s insights provide valuable perspectives on the intersection of consumer behavior, marketing strategy, and economic trends.

The importance of local produce to consumers’ health, their communities and the environment drives Kumar’s research. She addresses consumer’s views on local produce and marketing strategies that attract consumers, especially health-conscious millennials.

Her goal is to increase visibility of and demand for local produce, a growing concern of her students.

“There are many benefits to investing in a local food system, like fewer intermediaries, local farmers generate local jobs, and local food is healthier and more nutritious than conventional produce. Overall, it’s good for the individual, community and for the environment,” says Kumar.

The growing desire to increase the efficiency of food supply chains by shortening them can be credited, at least in part, to the younger generation. “The millennial generation is at the forefront of demanding sustainability and open and ethical practices from retailers,” says Kumar.

By sharing their interests in emerging trends and the hottest retailers students also help fuel Kumar’s research projects. “Many times, the idea for research comes from my students,” says Kumar. “They help me understand what the bigger social demographic trends are. Students are right there at the forefront.”

The benefits of such a relationship are mutual. Kumar asks students to share their consumer experiences then shares her findings with them, giving students a glimpse into the research process. “I usually talk to my students about my research. I value their feedback,” Kumar says. “How do you start thinking about it? You have your goal, you draw your plan, you develop your hypothesis. I’m helping them think along those lines. Then, I bring in my project, tell them this is the state of the art, and ask their opinion.”

Retailers use price-match guarantees to compete by matching or beating competitors’ prices, which significantly influences consumer behavior. These guarantees enhance the perceived value of a retailer and can reduce consumers’ tendency to comparison shop, leading to increased purchase likelihood, especially when the policy is simple and easy to understand. Price-match guarantees serve as a heuristic for consumers, particularly those with low price sensitivity or high search costs, accelerating their purchase decisions. Conversely, when search costs are low, such guarantees may prompt more comparison shopping to validate the best deal.

Despite the advantages, the actual utilization of price protection guarantees by credit cardholders is minimal, prompting issuers to phase out these benefits in favor of more valued offerings. Automated apps like Earny and Sift have facilitated increased claim filings by tracking price drops and handling claims, impacting the traditional appeal of price protection. A report evaluating the price protection policies of the largest credit card issuers in the U.S. highlighted the detailed criteria used to assess the availability, coverage, claims process, and transparency of these benefits, reflecting the complexity and consumer expectations surrounding price protection policies.