BizEd Prepares High School Students for Collegiate Business Education
BizEd: A Leadership Program for High School Students is a two-week summer camp at the Rutgers School of Business–Camden designed to prepare a select group of students for the rigors of collegiate business education.
From July 12 to 23, 45 outstanding students from Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties will be introduced to theory and practice of accounting, finance, management, marketing, and technology. The camp is designed to spark creativity and develop decision-making skills.
“Anyone who can demonstrate that she or he can grasp classroom theory and then apply those insights to the challenges of the business world will always be in demand,” says Rayman Solomon, acting executive dean of the Rutgers School of Business–Camden. “This program provides a balanced view of business education that is lacking in most of the nation’s high schools. Children are graduating into an economy that demands much, much more of them than their parents encountered upon leaving high school. BizEd is a creative way to better prepare teenagers for success in college and throughout their lives.”
This summer marks the 10th anniversary of the BizEd camp. Since 2001, 241 top high school students have gone through the program, each of whom have worked closely with area business leaders who offer career guidance and up-to-the minute insights regarding current job, business, and economic trends.
Ren Cicalese, managing shareholder of the Alloy Silverstein Group, a Cherry Hill-based accounting firm, says that’s what has made the program successful for a decade. Cicalese has been an instructor and judge at the BizEd camp since its inception.
“These students have never been exposed to business education before this camp,” Cicalese says. “The business experts show them what it takes to make it in the business world. It’s a neat program because there’s this connection between the students and the professionals. They’re introduced to a competitive business environment for the first time.”
Kathryn McCaffrey, ethics officer for Lockheed Martin’s Space Systems Company in Newtown, Pa., has also advised and judged the students for each of the past 10 summers.
“The interactive DVD training scenarios that I present to the BizEd students here at Rutgers are based on real-life cases that have occurred within the Lockheed Martin company,” McCaffrey says, adding that her discussions with the students demonstrate the choices employees and managers have to make in and out of the workplace.
“Diversity, ethics, and full-spectrum leadership are all topics that are discussed,” she says. “The scenarios deal with proper time charging, management styles, employee leave, workplace relationships, product safety, as well as international dealings.”
Over the course of the program, the high school students will visit local businesses such as Campbell Soup headquarters in Camden and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.
The students will also work in teams and apply their knowledge to a business case competition where they will present a strategy to resolve a real-life business issue. Each member of the winning team receives a laptop computer courtesy of the Rutgers–Camden business school.
Upon completing the program, each student will receive certification of his or her participation.
Pamela Carcione, a Rutgers–Camden accounting major who graduated in May, participated in the BizEd program prior to her senior year at Williamstown High School.
“BizEd was such an incredible experience for me because it confirmed that I did indeed wanted to work in the business world,” she says. “Having the opportunity to visit with local businesses really opened the door for me because it also emphasized the importance of networking.”
Carcione now works in the tax department at the Philadelphia offices of the global accounting and financial firm KPMG.
“Having this experience while I was still in high school really helped set the tone for how involved I was throughout my college career,” she says.
The students are exposed to sophisticated business tools and are asked to apply those tools competitively and in a group setting.
“This format creates real incentive and reward for the best performers, much like the real world,” says Gary Rago, director of the Rutgers–Camden Small Business Development Center.
More information about BizEd at Rutgers–Camden, click here.
Media Contact: Ed Moorhouse
856-225-6759
E-mail: ejmoor@camden.rutgers.edu