Smeal Hosts High School Students Exploring Business Education
The Smeal College of Business is hosting a group of high school students from areas in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., for an inaugural two-week program for high school students interested in pursuing a business education.
BOSS participants at work in Smeal's Trading Room.
Smeal Hosts High School Students Exploring Business Education
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (June 23, 2008) – The Smeal College of Business is hosting a group of high school students from areas in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., for an inaugural two-week program for high school students interested in pursuing a business education.
Fourteen students are taking college prep and business fundamentals classes led by Penn State faculty while they get a taste of life as a college student during Smeal's new Business Opportunities Summer Session (BOSS), held June 15-28.
The BOSS agenda and curriculum is based on the former Penn State Business, Engineering, Science & Technology (BEST) Summer Scholars Program, which was a joint effort between the University and Eastman Kodak to introduce talented, underrepresented high school students to the University and career opportunities in imaging systems and technology.
The last BEST program was held on campus in 2003 and Jamie Campbell, director of undergraduate diversity enhancement programs at Smeal, built the BOSS program to continue BEST's efforts in educational enrichment, career awareness, and exposure to corporate culture for diversity students.
Participants spend two weeks on Penn State's University Park campus, living in dorms and taking classes that focus on writing, math, leadership, and teambuilding. The goal of the program is to expose future Penn State and Smeal students to the opportunities that exist at the college and prepare them for eventual admission into the University.
The typical day consists of two morning classes with Smeal faculty focusing on business fundamentals and applications, an afternoon class on college preparation, and group work and extracurricular activities in the evening.
The morning courses include topics like business ethics, international business, management, marketing, and sports business. The college prep courses cover topics ranging from student life and campus resources to test taking and time management skills.
At the conclusion of the program, the students will complete a team project and make a presentation to representatives from corporate sponsor PricewaterhouseCoopers based on their previous two weeks of studies.
Next summer, Campbell hopes to expand the BOSS program with more students and enhanced coursework.
For more information, contact Jamie Campbell at juc27@psu.edu.
REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu.
Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Center for Digital Transformation, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.
