What Can Students Learn from Clark Griswold?

J.T. Eagan

06-23-2025

J.T. Eagan designed a project to bring the fictional Griswold family to life for an accounting class. In part one of his three-part Daniels Insights series, he talked about the need to design an innovative case study that would emphasize course content while enhancing students’ soft skills. Part two described how the course is implemented. Today’s final installment focuses on student reaction and the impact of the project.

The vast majority of students greatly appreciate the extra effort this project takes to create and facilitate. Yes, each year fewer students have seen the classic Christmas Vacation movie. However, any knowledge of the pop culture references is completely ancillary to the experiential learning process. The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Clark had many students engage in the project at a deeper level.

The student evaluations are truly humbling and motivating. Here are some excerpts from the Spring 2025 sections:

• The tax project is great, I'll never forget AI Clark.
• The tax return project was probably the most applicable and well thought out project I have ever done. I really did have fun with it and it helped me to figure out more what I want to do in my career. I also really liked that you took the time to meet with every single student in your class. I have never met with a professor one-on-one before because I was too scared to and being forced to (although still scary) was really great and I had a really great conversation with you. I always felt that you cared about this class and all the students’ learning and I know this will end up being my favorite course that I take at Purdue.
• I had a tax internship prior to taking the class, and I cannot overstate how realistic and applicable the Clark Griswold Tax Return project is to the real world.
• I thought the use of AI added a positive twist to the whole project. The brief meeting we had in regards to the project I thought was really nice as well. From not having ever really thought about tax as something I would be interested in to now applying to as many tax positions as I possibly can, I believe this class has been one of the best, if not the best, I have taken at Purdue.
• I want to share with you that this has been one of the most impactful classes I've taken at Purdue. I really appreciate the time you put into this class and making sure students succeed. I personally struggled a bit on exams, but I feel that my learning and growth outweighs what my grade shows. The tax project was the most meaningful assignment I've completed here as an accounting major. I honestly really enjoyed the project and having a real-world learning experience that will translate to my profession. Meeting with you one-on-one was also a very unique experience in terms of Purdue course layouts and I appreciate your time and effort doing so with every student! Thank you for a great semester. I'm excited to hopefully enroll in future courses of yours!

Overall impact

The project has primarily replaced the final exam for MGMT 50400. The interactions between instructor and student are now effectively an oral examination. The soft skills engaged and developed in the project help to make our students a higher-quality product, thus representing the Daniels School well in the market. I am often organizing and running events for the accounting program, including Pancakes with Professors and the accounting cookout. It is truly a pleasure to engage students outside of the classroom where they actually want to talk about a project!

This project is my Unfinished Block P: I will never be done enhancing or improving it for the betterment of our students. I’ve had the opportunity to present the case in a few different venues around Purdue as well as to tax professor colleagues at American Taxation Association meetings. It is truly humbling to see our work here at the Daniels School of Business be recognized as innovative and impactful.