By Cliff Peale
The Cincinnati Enquirer

James E. Schwab (center), Cincinnati market president for U.S. Bank, talks with University of Cincinnati students Sam Walkiewicz and Traci Osborne. The Cincinnati Enquirer/JEFF SWINGER

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS - About 350 University of Cincinnati freshman business students spent the fall and winter quarters studying 16 local corporations, an outward-looking trend that will continue at the College of Business.

For Doug Feustel, it's already taught him something he didn't know. Feustel, a freshman from Dayton, Ohio, was part of a team studying Frisch's Restaurants Inc. and learned that many of Frisch's top executives are part of the same family.

"That's basically affected most of their business decisions," Feustel said Thursday as the groups presented their projects. "They've been pretty conservative, but they've had steady growth.

"It's basic application," he added. "You study these things in a book, then you see it played out in a real company."

That's what UC administrators had in mind when they launched the program, called Project Fast Track, last fall. It includes every freshman in the program.

Like their counterparts at business schools across the country, UC administrators want to get students connected with the business world as quickly as possible.

"We want to ramp them up much faster for the experiences and opportunities that come in our program," said Marianne Lewis, associate dean of innovation and program development.

Students hung posters detailing the companies in five areas: financial, strategic direction, internal, customers, and learning and growth. They worked with company officials ranging, in some cases, to the CEO.

"They're trying to get their arms around what each company does," Lewis said. "If you can help them get over the intimidation factor, you can help them so much."

The team that studied Kroger Co. won the internal competition for the project. Other companies included Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S. Bank, Cinergy Corp. and Cincinnati Bell Inc.

"I think they learned something, and I think they learned in a way more motivating than reading it in a textbook," said Fritz Russ, dean of the business school.

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com