Pamplin students help a nonprofit give the gift of mobility
Hope to Walk and Virginia Tech students map a path to changing lives.
In Dirk Buengel’s management consulting capstone course, students work with actual clients to solve real-world business challenges while building their professional skills.
During the fall semester, one student team partnered with Hope to Walk, a Blacksburg-based nonprofit that designs, builds, and donates prosthetic legs to people in Central America, Africa, and Asia.
“In Latin American culture, sadly, if someone has a physical deformity such as an amputation, that person is shunned by society and destined to live a life of rejection and alienation,” said Reed Kennedy, volunteer executive director of Hope to Walk and Pamplin College of Business associate professor of practice emeritus of management. “When an amputee gets a prosthetic leg, they not only receive the gift of mobility, but also hope for a new life of acceptance, independence, and dignity.”
Before retiring from Virginia Tech, Kennedy spent 13 years in the Department of Management where he taught the management consulting capstone course.
The Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business team members interviewed Hope to Walk staff, visited the facility, and conducted independent research to better understand the organization. Using their findings, they explored what was feasible and realistic, providing recommendations that supported both Hope to Walk’s goals and operational constraints.
At the start of the project, the students learned the organization’s labor force of volunteers was averaging 30 prosthetic legs per month. Over the course of the semester, students mapped out a plan to meet future demand and have an ultimate goal of increasing production to 250 legs per month by 2033.
The team identified constraints including labor bottlenecks, siloed workflows, and inconsistent skill development. By the end of the semester, the team had developed a five-phase growth roadmap that would help Hope to Walk increase its build production capacity and guide organizational growth. With suggested organizational changes ranging from establishing a volunteer training coordinator to acquiring new machinery for in-house parts development, the plan provides actionable steps for Hope to Walk to achieve its goals.
“Hope to Walk’s mission, and the very nature of being a nonprofit, is what initially drew me to this capstone project,” said Julia Lee ‘25. “When presented with several project options, Hope to Walk stood out immediately. This was my first nonprofit consulting project, and it was eye-opening to see how the business model shaped what was realistically possible, reinforcing the importance of thoughtful, grounded recommendations.”
Lee, who now works at McKinsey & Company, served as a team member on the Hope to Walk project and worked alongside Ford Beck, Quinn Hampel, Petrina Papadimitrious, Liam Owens, and Michael Getsey. She attributes her desire to support the organization to a study abroad experience where she taught English to primary school children in rural Rwanda.
“Our team prioritized pragmatic, realistic, and implementable recommendations that could drive meaningful change. We developed a five-phase implementation roadmap that accounted for ease of execution, financial and capital constraints, internal capabilities, and long-term scalability,” Lee said. “The early phases focused on creating structure and standardization within existing systems, while later phases emphasized investment in production growth - whether through outsourcing, new equipment, or external expansion opportunities.”
For Buengel, this course emulates real-world consulting projects with clients.
“Even if students decide not to work in consulting, they can all use the success-critical skills and competencies learned in the course including teamwork, project management, customer relationship management, data analytics and visualization, and so much more,” he said.
For the students who worked with Hope to Walk, they not only enhanced their professional skills through experiential learning in the classroom, they also embraced Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) and left a lasting impact on the organization.
“I was extremely rewarded and proud of the team for their final results. They exceeded my expectations on the roadmap they gave us for the next seven years,” Kennedy said. “Their work was thorough, professional, and most importantly, very useful and practical for our organization as we move forward to meet more needs of amputees.”
