Student-Driven Solutions with Rutgers MBS

Externship Program

The Rutgers Master of Business and Science Externship Exchange Program connects Rutgers University undergraduate and graduate students with organizations across industries for short-term, high-impact project work. These experiential learning opportunities allow students to apply their skills to solve real-world problems- while organizations like New Explorer's Camp LLC benefit from fresh perspectives, strategic insights, and innovative solutions.

New Explorer's is proud to collaborate with Rutgers MBS Exchange Program students. Through this partnership, students support our mission and being innovative solutions to key challenges. This collaboration allowed students to work on projects focused on education equity, data analytics, strategic planning, and performance metrics. These projects support our broader mission to improve educational outcomes for underserved youth and drive meaningful change in our communities.

Learn more about the Rutgers MBS Exchange Program

Project Timeline

The New Explorer's Camp project assesses key performance indicators (KPIs) influencing educational outcomes. The project examines how specific factors like absenteeism, cell phone data and usage, the school-to-pharmaceutical pipeline, funding per pupil, etc. in selected districts affect students as they devote a certain amount of time to these indicators more than time spent on school activities and studying. The project considers how daily time use, including the impact of technology, affects students' social and academic development. Analysis suggests that as funding per student increases beyond certain levels, academic performance may decline, particularly if resources are not effectively allocated. This targeted approach aims to identify actionable improvements to enhance educational experiences for all students.

Fall 2024

Laying the Foundation

The Fall 2024 Externship group focused on foundational research and data analysis to better understand factors affecting educational equity. Their work included identifying and assessing key performance indicators (KPIs) for student success across various communities.

Spring 2025

Building on Insights

The Spring 2025 Externship group is focusing on expanding the scope of research by diving deeper into these issues and introducing additionals KPIs. Their work builds on the data from Fall 2024 and brings new dimensions to the project.

Future Goals

Visualizing and Sharing Impact

As this ongoing project grows, our goal is so synthesize findings from both externship cycles into comprehensive reports, visual dashboards, and presentations that highlight trends, community needs, and opportunities for impact.

Fall 2024 Project Information

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Key Performance Indicators

Dedication. Expertise. Passion.

Understanding the factors that impact educational equity and student success is central to our work. Through our collaboration with Rutgers MBS Externship Exchange, we are identifying and analyzing KPIs that help us better serve youth and improve program outcomes. KPIs are measurable values that help organizations track progress toward specific goals. At New Explorers, KPIs allow us to assess the effectiveness of our programming, identify systemic barriers, and uncover opportunities to better support the students and communities we serve.

Chronic Absenteeism

This KPI focuses on tracking patterns of student absenteeism. It involves analyzing the frequency and duration of absences, identifying root causes such as transportation issues, housing instability, and assessing how chronic absenteeism correlates with academic outcomes.

Takeaway: "Black students (34%) and students of two or more races (35%) are overrepresented in chronic absenteeism compared to their total population (15% and 9%)" (Fall 2024)

Next Research Step: "Further analyze absenteeism by income and location to explain racial/ethnic disparities" (Fall 2024)

Per-Pupil Funding

This KPI focuses on how school funding is distributed on a per-student bias across different districts and demographic groups. It evaluates disparities in resource allocation and investigates how these funding differences influence the availability of academic support services, enrichment opportunities, and overall student performance.

Takeaway: "The spending per pupil varies from state to state. New York spends approximately $25,000 per pupil, the highest in the nation reflecting comprehensive student services and teacher salaries. On the other hand, Oregon spends closer to $12,000 per pupil, significantly lower compared to other states, reflecting in lack of resources available for student support and teacher compensation" (Fall 2024)

Next Research Step: "Track changes in funding allocations over time in selected states and their corresponding impact on educational resources and student outcomes" (Fall 2024)

Cell Phone Usage

This KPI explores the extent to which students have access to cell phones and mobile data, and how that access influences their academic engagement and digital literacy. It also examines usage patterns to better understand the role of mobile technology in students' daily lives, especially for learning outside the classroom.

Takeaway: "Students spend more time on their phones than studying or doing homework leading to distractions and lower academic performance. 76.7% of teens said they spend two or more hours on social media and only 29.1% said they spend that much time doing their homework" (Washington Post) (Fall 2024)

Next Research Step: "Study screen time's impact on cognitive development and analyze how to incorporate technology for only educational purposes in curriculum to influence student outcomes" (Fall 2024)

School-to-Pharmaceutical Pipeline

This KPI investigates the relationship between student experiences and early exposure to pharmaceuticals, particularly how systemic pressures and social environments may lead to increased reliance on medication as a response to behavioral or academic challenges. The goal is to understand how institutional practices and broader health trends contribute to this pipeline and its impact on student well-being.

Takeaway: "Opioid abuse is the primary driver of overdose deaths amongst 15-24 year olds. There is a steep increase from 2000 to 2017 indicating this age group was vulnerable to opioids during that time period (Fall 2024)

Next Research Step: "Explore the role of opioids in time periods given recent trends and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions post 2017, seeing where young adults are headed towards their drug preferences" (Fall 2024)