Business Students Help Shape the Future of Chicago Park District

“The best way for students to learn is by working on a real project,” says Illinois Tech’s Stuart School of Business Industry Assistant Professor Wenchen Wang. “They’re learning the theories and tools in class while simultaneously applying them to an actual organization with real stakeholders.”

Students in Wang’s PA 580 Program Evaluation in Public Policy course during the fall 2025 semester partnered with the Chicago Park District to develop a new fee structure for its summer day camps, which serve more than 16,000 children each year at nearly 200 parks across Chicago.

Camp fees vary by location based on a tiered pricing system that was originally developed in 2018. After years of demographic shifts and operational changes—including adjustments made during the COVID-19 pandemic—the park district wanted to revisit the methodology behind those tiers.

Working with publicly available census data and other community information, students developed a more transparent model that considers factors such as median household income, family demographics, geographic location, park popularity, and program capacity.

The goal was to create a more understandable pricing structure that better reflects the communities that each park serves.

“The previous structure was very technical,” Wang says. “Many of the stakeholders understood the results but not necessarily the logic behind them. We wanted students to create a model that was more straightforward, so people could clearly see why a park falls into a certain fee category.”

Throughout the semester, students conducted research, analyzed data, built evaluation frameworks, and presented their recommendations to Chicago Park District leadership—mirroring the work that they may one day perform as public administrators.

For many students, the project was their first opportunity to serve a real client.

“They’re very excited because they get hands-on experience,” Wang says. “They build professional connections, they have a substantial project to include on their resume, and they see how the skills they’re learning can create real change.”

According to Wang, the park district says the proposed fee structure will be approved for implementation in 2028. Wang hopes that this success will encourage more public agencies and nonprofit organizations to collaborate with her future courses.

“I really want organizations to know this opportunity exists,” she says. “If they have a program they want to improve or evaluate, our students can help while gaining invaluable real-world experience.”