The undergraduate capstone course BUS 401: Crafting Your Purpose in Business showcases the thoughtful and inspiring teaching styles of Sandra Corredor and Heather Swenddal, both teaching assistant professor of business administration at Gies Business. With their unconventional paths to academia, they challenge seniors to develop the mindset and skills needed to lead purpose-centered lives.

Heather Swenddal believes teaching is not just about imparting knowledge, but also about helping students prepare for life after graduation.

“My purpose is to help people realize and achieve their potential,” said Swenddal. “That’s my inspiration, whether it’s making the process of writing a purpose statement less daunting or scaling an online course on management so that its accessible to non-business majors all across campus.”

Swenddal’s journey to Gies Business was anything but typical. She is a first-generation college student from Lodi, CA, who began her higher-education journey at a community college before graduating summa cum laude from California State University.

“To this day, some of my favorite moments are when a student comes up to me and whispers, ‘I went to a community college’ and I get to say, ‘I did, too’,” said Swenddal.

Her career began in public relations and marketing for nonprofits, including the American Red Cross. There she began flexing her business muscles, taking on management roles, and got her first taste of teaching, training volunteers of all ages.

Feeling pulled toward education, Swenddal and her husband made the bold decision to move to South Korea, where she taught English to high school students. This led her to RMIT University, where her career evolved from teaching into managing 100 people from 12 countries. She earned a master’s degree in teaching international students followed by a PhD in management from RMIT.

Family demands brought Swenddal home to the US In 2019. She lectured at East Coast universities before becoming an assistant professor of management at Nichols College, where she taught a wide array of business courses. When she began looking for her next opportunity, she was drawn to Gies Business because of its focus on promoting purpose and expanding access to higher education.

“I’ve experienced the transformative power of education,” said Swenddal. “I’m excited to be part of the Gies mission to scale our offerings and help thousands of young people build purpose-driven lives.”

In addition to BUS 401 , Swenddal teaches BADM 310: Management and Organizational Behavior, and BADM 312: Designing and Managing Organizations. She earned the Dean’s Impact Award in 2023 and last year was named academic director of the of the management major at Gies Business. She also received an honorable mention for the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign's Chancellor’s Student Success Impact Award earlier this year.

“She always made clear to us that what we were learning was much more important than what grade we earned – we were always encouraged to focus on the end goal of finding a career path that aligns with your values,” said Alej Curtis (BA ’24).

Michael Astorga (ACCY ’24, MAS ’25) said he’s looking to bring Professor Swenddal’s energy and work style to a new job at consulting firm Protiviti.

“She approaches everyone with grace and kindness and taught me how to bring enthusiasm to whatever you’re doing to not only create joy for yourself but for others,” said Astorga.

A multiplier of impact

Sandra Corredor's path to Gies Business was also driven by a passion for education and a desire to make an impact. As an undergraduate in Colombia, she supervised student projects in diverse and at-risk communities, seeing firsthand the transformative power of business education . She realized that business schools have a "multiplier of impact," as they educate future leaders who will affect countless employees, partners, and clients.

After earning her master's degrees in Colombia, Corredor pursued her PhD in Business Administration at Gies Business. She was drawn to Gies’ strong research credentials in technology and innovation and the ecosystem of startups. After working at the University of Connecticut for three years, a combination of family factors and her love for Gies Business brought her back to Champaign. Her daughter chose the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for her undergraduate degree, which coincided with Corredor's growing desire to return to Gies in 2020 to be part of the mission to "democratize business education".

Corredor, who has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in innovation, strategic management, leadership, and healthcare innovation, was named one of Poets&Quants Top 50 Undergraduate Professors in 2024. Last year, she was also named associate head of the Department of Business Administration at Gies Business.

Corredor is known for her dynamic teaching style and lectures "paced like a well-written novel." She encourages students to think critically and creatively through thoughtfully designed exercises, game-based learning, and simulations.

“I bring high energy to my classes – I aim to teach at least five levels above my students’ energy,” said Corredor, who said she developed a teaching style to create an inspiring classroom presence. “That’s why I design activities that get them moving, voting, debating, and actively thinking and sharing. I offer a supportive environment where mistakes are celebrated as valuable learning opportunities.”

“Her energy is infectious, and her students feel comfortable asking questions and exploring new ideas,” said Elias Tamer (BA ’25). “She is a professor that teaches by example and has helped me establish a mindset and set of habits to live a more meaningful and fulfilling life.”

How BUS 401 shapes future leaders

The reimagining of BUS 401 began two years ago when College leadership was looking to infuse the concept of career and life “purpose” into instruction. Corredor and Swenddal began brainstorming ways to make the global business course more interactive and build on the team problem-solving at the core of the BUS 301 curriculum.

The BUS 401 curriculum now focuses on three areas of growth: Defining your purpose, developing your skills, and engaging with your communities. Corredor and Swenddal’s innovative pedagogy emphasizes self-reflection, community engagement, and the practical application of business skills.

“The best classes are full of excited chatter and dialogue,” said Swenddal. “The essence of experiential learning is expressing an idea yourself, and BUS 401 is structured to encourage that exploration.”

“I learned it’s very important to ask questions, because if you don’t speak up and try to fake it until you make it, you’re going to fall behind,” said Diane Purdes (BA ’24), a large property underwriter at Zurich North America. “I also came to understand that my purpose is to spread knowledge within an organization and teach others within a corporate setting instead of through a career in academia.”

“Initially, there’s resistance to writing a purpose statement, so we start with exercises that help them identify their strengths and what brings them ‘flow’,” said Corredor. “We encourage them to use ChatGPT to help them with a first draft that they can then revise, then challenge them to link their purpose to a community-driven project that they develop.”

Students have embraced this vision, investing over 4,500 hours annually in projects that support a wide range of organizations, from local nonprofits to international groups.

For example, Gisselle Perez-Moncada (BA ’25) is raising funds to help low-income elementary school students in her Little Village neighborhood pay for fees associated with applying to and attending Chicago’s selective enrollment high schools. She is also organizing a University of Illinois tour day to expose them to the campus and highlight the resources available to Latino students.

“I wouldn’t be pursuing a career in academia had it not been for Professor Swenddal and BUS 401,” said Perez-Moncada, who is now preparing applications for pursuing her master’s degree.

“I enjoy their eagerness to lead, innovate, and contribute to their communities,” said Corredor. “There’s a multiplier effect of the impact of what we do – we’re given the opportunity to inspire and motivate the next generation of business leaders.”

Swenddal agrees, seeing teaching as the art of planting seeds you may never see grow.

“Every student is on a journey of self-discovery, and sometimes you're the lucky one who gets to watch their confidence blossom in real-time,” she said. “It's in these moments—whether they're making a connection about information or identity—that you find the true magic of this profession.”