WSU Tech’s ShockStarter Program Is Win-Win for Wichita

An innovative work-based program is helping the Wichita ecosystem by granting businesses access to affordable marketing services while also providing Wichita State University and WSU Tech students with hands-on experience in web design, graphic design and more.

ShockStarter is a student-run digital marketing agency where students work with real-world clients to provide a variety of marketing services. The students also gain skills and build portfolios to help advance their careers after graduation.

“Part of our mission at WSU Tech is to develop a workforce that advances our economic development,” said Krissy Buck, ShockStarter program director. “We’re doing that. We’re developing the workforce while doing work to drive business for clients, which helps our local ecosystem.”

About the Program

In 2021, Tonya Witherspoon, WSU associate vice president, launched ShockStarter in response to industry reports that college graduates lacked online marketing skills.

“She saw a gap and started ShockStarter to create an applied learning opportunity where students could gain digital marketing skills and work with paying customers while learning in the classroom,” Buck explained.

A firm believer that marketing is vital in every industry, Witherspoon opened the program to WSU and WSU Tech students no matter their course of study. After being named director and chair of digital marketing at WSU Tech in 2023, Buck took over the program and maintained that tradition.

“We still hire WSU and WSU Tech students in any concentration,” Buck said. “They can be studying automotive but love creating logos.”

Students have designed logos, created websites and produced video content for social media, especially short-form videos for platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. ShockStarter is able to make its services more accessible from a cost perspective. But Buck is quick to point out the program exists to augment — not compete with — the current marketing ecosystem.

“We work with small businesses, startups and agencies,” Buck said. “We never want to compete with our wonderful marketing agencies in town. Many representatives serve on the board and advocate for ShockStarter. If they have a potential client who doesn’t meet their minimum budget, they’ll often refer them to ShockStarter.”

Complementary Skills

The agency expands on the traditional classroom experience by providing a unique opportunity for students to learn both hard and soft skills necessary to succeed in the professional world.

“ShockStarter gives a wide range of marketing experience,” said Mariana Ledesma, a student in the program. “I was able to step into different aspects of marketing — design, websites, search engine optimization, photography. I’m focused on social media.”

Ledesma has been involved in ShockStarter for about a year. She graduated from WSU Tech with a degree in digital marketing and started a program in organizational leadership and learning at WSU.

“My degree at WSU Tech was focused on digital marketing, and I’m putting what I learned into actual work,” Ledesma said. “At WSU I’m learning all the soft skills I need, like leadership and digital transformation. I can take the lead when we work with clients.”

Client management and collaboration are two key soft skills students gain in ShockStarter.

“Even in a digital marketing program where students are learning technical skills, it’s still not the same as applying real-world knowledge,” Buck said. “It’s a whole different thing when students are working with clients and getting their feedback.”

Similarly, students learn to work with a group of peers.

“They have to collaborate. They have to talk to each other and work together so they have happy customers,” Buck said.

Ledesma said the connections she made with fellow students and industry have made the program rewarding.

“We’re able to develop our professional skills and make connections,” she added. “ShockStarter helps students show industry that we have these skills. It’s amazing.”

Personal Growth

Beyond offering professional experience, ShockStarter has helped students like Ledesma grow on a personal level.

“I was super shy,” she said. “I didn’t like being out there. ShockStarter has helped guide me through my career to show me different aspects of what I can do. I had an idea I wanted to get into marketing, but now I know I want to be doing it. I have found what I enjoy because I have that support.”

As a Chicana student, Ledesma said representation matters. She’s the first generation of her family to go to college and wants to inspire other students.

“It was hard to find someone who looks like me in marketing,” she said. “I wanted to be that person to show we are able to step into these rooms without feeling like we’re different.”

To be a face for her community, Ledesma went outside of her comfort zone, appearing on camera in addition to learning how to run photo and video shoots. She continues to push herself, thanks to ShockStarter.

“I’m learning to constantly grow,” she said. “I always want to learn new ways to do something.”

Artificial Intelligence

A significant new approach for students to learn has been artificial intelligence. Buck is passionate about including AI in the curriculum and ShockStarter’s workflows so students will be well-equipped to incorporate it responsibly in their careers.

“I’m a big advocate for using AI,” she said. “I’m 100% on board with students using it to create content, but I want them to use it the right way. I’m not on board with copy and paste.”

AI is already integrated into many marketing tools, so building these skills is essential and makes students more competitive in the job market.

“In our applied learning lab, AI has organically come up in almost every single program we use. Every piece of software, even scheduling platforms — it’s integrated already,” Buck said. “It’s important that students are learning this now and using this now so they can learn how to use it safely and with integrity.”

With the AI paradigm shift, Buck thinks deeply about the most responsible ways to incorporate AI in the program — for example, making sure ChatGPT prompts don’t include bias or hate speech, which can perpetuate because of the generative nature of machine learning.

“Whatever we create here in this office, for years to come it has to be used in the right ways,” Buck said. “The responsibility is on the user. These are things I think about — using AI ethically.”

Looking Forward

Buck is excited about what’s next for ShockStarter. She hopes to expand the program to other industries and is even looking at creating opportunities for high school students.

“We’re in a season of growth right now,” Buck said. “The end goal is to open this up to other business operations — such as bookkeeping, project management, event management — and bring in more students.

Students are employed by WSU Tech and receive an hourly wage. The number of students in the program depends on the client workload, provided the students are actively taking classes. As the number of clients increase, the number of students in the program can increase, with a total capacity of seven people.

Program alumni are already finding success at a variety of organizations, such as Deloitte, the Greater Wichita Partnership, the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce and several nonprofits.

“These students are already leaders in our community,” Buck said. “I believe that’s because of the hard and soft skills that they received in ShockStarter.”

To learn more about ShockStarter, visit their website or follow them on Facebook or Instagram.