High-schoolers mind their own business(es)

While many of their peers were catching up on the sleep they missed during the school year, 30 black and Hispanic high-school seniors from as far away as Puerto Rico got a jump on their future by participating in a four-week introduction to the corporate world at the Graduate School of Business.

The Summer Business Institute (SBI), operated by Leadership Education and Development in Business (LEAD), and hosted by universities around the nation, is a partnership between businesses and academic institutions that encourages minority high-school students to pursue business careers.

Because minority undergraduates traditionally gravitate towards fields such as medicine and law, business schools have a difficult time maintaining the enrollment diversity they-and the corporate community-desire. The SBI curriculum introduces minority students to business careers through an intensive program that includes faculty lectures on the various business disciplines, presentations and case studies by corporate executives, and site visits to the facilities of participating corporations. The program culminates in students presenting mock business plans for their own enterprises.

Since the national program began in 1980, 6,000 students have participated in its workshops, held at 11 top business schools across the country each summer. Nearly 60 percent of these alumni went on to attend the top 50 universities and colleges in the country, with two-thirds of the students majoring in a business-related field. This summer was the first time the University of Chicago hosted the event.--C.S.