Studio‑Scale SE: Multi‑Term, Mentor‑Guided, Community‑Partnered Projects for Software Design

This paper presents a practice‑driven software engineering course model that centers the curriculum on multi‑term, client‑partnered projects to cultivate real‑world design, teamwork, and delivery skills at undergraduate scale. The approach combines a shared web application stack, agile project management with iterative demos and retrospectives, and remote mentorship from industry alumni to provide authentic exposure to legacy code, stakeholder communication, and production‑like workflows. Operational experiences (“war stories”) surface recurring risks credential leakage, privacy missteps, shifting stakeholder expectations, and deployment hurdles and translate them into actionable process controls such as time‑boxing, version‑control discipline, and early environment planning. Reported outcomes highlight growth in technical execution and soft skills, increased student ownership through community impact, and a repeatable structure that decouples principles from practicum to support continuity across semesters. The paper concludes with adoption guidance on partner selection, mentor recruitment, and technology standardization to help programs embed authentic, sustainable project work as a centerpiece of software engineering education.