Adopting Rex the Mardi Gras King’s motto, “Pro Bono Publico” (For the Public Good), a group of 16 DePaul University MBA students will embark on a community service mission Nov. 28 to help New Orleans entrepreneurs nurture businesses in the hurricane-ravaged city.

The full-time students will devote a week of their post-Thanksgiving break to four business-oriented community service projects—part of a new long-term program they created to use their business school skills to spur economic activity in the Crescent City.

From Nov. 28 to Dec. 5, student teams will fan out across New Orleans to counsel small business owners at Idea Village, a local non-profit entrepreneur center; develop a strategic plan for the Storyville Spirits Co., a restaurant and bar in the city’s historic Uptown neighborhood; help market a newly opened store called InExchange at Tulane University that sells crafts made by New Orleans and third-world artists to college students; and support an urban planning project run by DePaul’s Master of Public Service program.

The initiative began with an e-mail sent to classmates by MBA student Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart of Downers Grove, Ill. Recalling the rewards of a community service trip she took as a DePaul undergraduate, Hilgart proposed that this undergraduate tradition—inspired by the French priest and “Apostle of Charity,” St. Vincent de Paul— be extended to the graduate business school.

While volunteering for New Orleans home building projects was an obvious option, “with our background in business, we had an opportunity to do something unique,” Hilgart said. “I suggested that, as residents of one American city assisting another, we could help rebuild the New Orleans economy by helping business owners get back on their feet. To have a large group of students with a variety of business experience and common vacation time was an opportunity to serve that couldn’t be passed up.” Hilgart also proposed that students pack their sleeping bags and adopt “simple living”—including four to a hotel room—keep expenses down and the focus on public service.

The call to action was warmly embraced by Hilgart’s classmates, who quickly filled the 16 spots designated for the trip and pledged $100 each toward travel expenses. The volunteers included five international students who, Hilgart said, were initially unaware of the extent of New Orleans’ continuing economic woes, but eagerly offered support once they did. They presented their idea to Ray Whittington, DePaul’s business school dean, who gave the students a grant to fully fund the project.

Once the commitment had been made, Hilgart and two co-organizers, Lucas Weingarten and Anastasia Kwit, worked with the group to study the New Orleans market and decide where their community service could make a difference. They pored over news stories that chronicled post-hurricane business issues, talked with DePaul and Tulane university professors who were running volunteer programs in the city, and sought advice from New Orleans non-profit business groups, as well as DePaul’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, to identify four initial projects.

As an example of what the students plan to do, Hilgart said she and teammates working with InExchange will help the store develop a branding campaign that includes a new Web site. “With buying power down in New Orleans, it is important to find a means to sell New Orleans products to other parts of the country, in order to increase the revenue stream and start a cycle of growth.”

Weingarten, a native of Raleigh, N.C., said the students are committed to continuing the entrepreneur service work even after they return to their studies to DePaul. They also plan to pass the torch of community service to the next MBA class. “One of the things we are most proud of is that we have built this thing from the ground up, and the first bridges that have been laid are due to our collective drive and aspirations to make a difference,” he said. “We’re energized by the reception and guidance we’ve received from those in New Orleans on the other end of those bridges. We see this as the first of many trips of a sustained program.”

Kwit has launched a Web site (http://nola.seven10.com) to help participants keep track of the progress of the group’s mission and pass it on to the next MBA class.

“Two years after Katrina happened, I am appalled at the lack of devoted assistance to help the people and businesses of New Orleans, outside the tourism industry,” Kwit, of Summit, Ill., said. “I keep reading stories about how the city has not come back 100 percent, not even 50 percent in some places. It’s important for me as an American to go to New Orleans and offer my help.”