Business communication instructors understand the value of helping students learn, discuss, apply, and manipulate communication strategies on the basis of purpose and audience. This rhetorical bent encourages active learning through activities and multi-purpose projects, but active learning often works best when students believe they are engaging concepts that will be useful to them in the future. In this article, the author discusses an interview project that she developed that encourages students to see beyond their preconceptions while practicing a variety of communication skills with professionals in different workplaces. The project has two overarching goals: to help students understand the value of professional communication skills and to provide practice opportunities with a variety of business communication genres and audiences. Students work through three core project phases: writing correspondence to arrange interviews, planning and conducting three interviews, and synthesizing findings into a short report. The author concludes that this interview project, whether used alone or in conjunction with a final project, has proven a successful strategy to help students see the value of the course to their future and to actively engage course concepts with real audiences.