Feature Friday: Students Helping Students with Business Research 

Posted June 10, 2025 in Uncategorized

Peer Research Advisers (PRAs) are student employees in JMU Libraries trained to help their peers in the College of Business with the in-depth research required to create a business plan for COB 300. The PRA program has been assisting their peers in the College of Business with research for over 8 years. In this week’s Feature Friday story, you’ll hear from one of our recently graduated PRAs—Chase Huff.  

Before graduating in Spring 2025, Chase served as a PRA offering business research consultations during the 2025-26 academic year. As he embarks on his post-JMU career, we celebrate the lasting impact he’s made on the PRA program and his help in training the 2026-27 cohort of PRAs – Payton Jaciow, Umar Khan, and Claire Svihra. 

With almost 24% of JMU undergraduates choosing a major in the College of Business, many folks in the JMU community have heard of “COB 300,” a famously rigorous course that requires teams of 8-9 students to create a business plan based on an original idea. A project like this requires plenty of research, and that’s where the PRAs come in! As student employees within the JMU Libraries, PRAs are trained to consult with business students to help them find the information they need for their business plans and other assignments. 

We are so grateful for our student employees! The PRAs’ hard work makes it possible for us to provide this level of research support to more than 700 business students each year. 

Let’s Get to Know Chase!

JMU Libraries: How did your PRA position help you as a student? 

Chase: The biggest way it’s helped me as a student is learning about the information we have access to as students and how to use different databases. It’s made research easier, and I’ve been able to use what I learned to bring something extra to my teams in other classes—getting good grades, too! 

JMU Libraries: How will the skills you’ve gained as a PRA help you in the future? 

Chase: The most valuable skill I gained was the ability to communicate professionally with pretty much anyone. I’ve had so many students come in asking for help, and I’ve learned how to figure out what they need and come up with good solutions. Being able to think creatively on the fly, having that confidence, and communicating professionally with other students are really valuable skills that I’ll carry into my career. It’s something I haven’t learned in a class, which makes it even more special. 

JMU Libraries: What was your favorite part of being a PRA?  

Chase: My favorite part is just being able to help fellow students through a really challenging process. We’ve been through COB 300 ourselves, and we understand how tough it can be. Being a fellow student who has been there and can offer comfort and guidance is very rewarding.  

JMU Libraries: Can you give an example of something you’ve helped a student to research for their COB 300 project? 

Chase: One of the most common questions we get is where to start. We usually start with their industry code—the NAICS code. NAICS stands for “North American Industry Classification System,” and it’s used to classify industries. That code allows students to search databases and find relevant financial information about their industry, such as market segments, key competitors, financial industry averages, ratios, and other essential information to help them build their business plan. 

JMU Libraries: That’s cool! Let’s say I wanted to invent some new kind of light-up shoes. Would the NAICS code be for “light-up shoes,” “footwear,” or something else? 

Chase: I could definitely look it up for you. Let’s see… I’m searching on a site called NAICS.com. I found “Footwear Manufacturing,” and the NAICS code is 316210. 

JMU Libraries: Was there anything surprising that you found you could learn using the databases? 

Chase: I was surprised to discover how much private information is available in some databases. There’s one that allows you to search people’s names and find information about them. During training, we spent a few minutes searching our own names, our parents’ names, and friends’ names, and it was shocking to see how much information was publicly available.  

JMU Libraries: Are you helping to train next year’s PRAs? 

Chase: Yes! Every year we get a brand-new group. What’s great about this job is that we all get to pick a project we want to work on. My project was taking on a mentorship role for the new PRAs. It gave me formal experience as a mentor, and I was extra involved in their training process. I attended all their training meetings, checked in with them weekly, and organized team bonding events—typical elements of a mentoring relationship. 

JMU Libraries: What do you want to do in the future? 

Chase: Luckily, I’m very blessed—I have a job lined up for post-grad already! I’ll be doing field sales and marketing in D.C. My main career goal is to be an entrepreneur or a manager of a company. After receiving advice from many people, they suggested that if I wasn’t sure about my exact path in entrepreneurship yet, I should gain sales experience since it’s a highly relevant skill in that world. So, I set out to apply for sales positions, and I was lucky to get one! I’m excited for my post-grad journey. 

JMU Libraries: What has it been like working with JMU’s business librarians? 

Chase: Extremely positive! Elizabeth and Valerie are very supportive of us. They’re excellent leaders and great supervisors in a professional sense, but they’ve also been incredibly kind and caring toward us. They bring us baked goods, write us sweet cards, and truly make our experience special. Whenever I’m asked about my favorite part of my job, I always say that working with the team and with them has been such a positive experience. 

This story is part of the JMU Libraries Feature Friday series. Learn more about our Peer Research Advisers program.