Members of Bemidji State University’s fishing team hope to convince an auto dealer to provide a BSU-branded truck to haul a boat and trailer already sponsored by Bemidji Marine.

Those same students will promote the sponsors — and BSU — as they drive the truck and trailer to collegiate bass fishing competitions across Minnesota and throughout the Midwest and South. One of those events is the 2017 College National Championship, to be held Aug. 10-12 on Lake Bemidji.

Students in a spring course on logos and branding competed to design the vinyl wrap for both the truck and trailer.

In similar efforts, Bemidji State is involving Marvin Windows and other firms in a tiny house to be built this fall by construction management students — and working with several companies on a winter Hardwater Lab for aquatic biology students.

It’s all about engagement — of students with businesses and businesses with students — and encouragement from Mike Mulry, director of engagement marketing for the BSU Alumni & Foundation.

Such partnerships offer multiple synergies that provide real-world learning while giving sponsors valuable exposure and bragging rights.

Mulry cited the fishing team truck-trailer sponsorship as an example.

“You have the design students, I think there are 23 in the class, who got to add this to their portfolios,” he said. “And the student whose design was chosen may have her work featured on ESPN when they cover the national tournament in Bemidji this summer.”

Also, the winning designer, Baylee Johnson of Bemidji, in April joined several fishing team members to pitch a Bemidji-area dealer on the merits of sponsoring a new or late-model truck to haul competitors and their 18-foot Ranger bass boat and its trailer.

The team hopes to get a Toyota dealer on board because the auto manufacturer is a leading sponsor of the Carhartt Bassmaster College Fishing Series. Competitors receive bonus prize money if they are driving a Toyota truck, Mulry said.

In the case of the tiny house, construction management students plan an all-day fall field trip to Warroad, where they will tour Marvin’s headquarters, watch demonstrations on new designs and technology and network with Marvin staff.

“It’s an opportunity for Marvin to have input into what the students are learning in order to make them more hirable in the future,” Mulry said.

Then, as students assemble the tiny house, Marvin representatives will visit campus to assist with installation of energy-efficient windows and doors.

Extreme Panel Technologies in Cottonwood, the Simonson Lumber Companies, the Potlatch Corp. and Northwoods Lumber Co. of Bemidji are also supplying materials and expertise for the house, which Mulry said is intended to be sold to a private buyer to raise money for future ventures.

For the Hardwater Lab, Glacier Trailers of Bemidji has agreed to provide $11,000 to match a university leveraged equipment grant for the ice house structure; Innovative Office Solutions in Bemidji is providing exterior graphics and interior furnishings; and the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance may furnish solar panels to generate electricity.

The finished lab should be ready for students’ study and research when Lake Bemidji freezes next winter.