Elon University hosted its inaugural Summer Business Institute this month for non-business majors seeking additional skills needed in today’s economy to run any organization, whether a business, nonprofit or government agency.
Run by the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, the three-week program, which concludes June 19, was modeled after similar ventures at Wake Forest University, the University of Virginia and Dartmouth.
“Regardless of where students go and work as they advance through their careers, whether for a nonprofit or government or a for-profit or a news agency, there are business skills they can use everywhere,” said Coleman Rich, a senior lecturer in the School of Business and director of the program. “They have to manage resources. They have to manage people, money and time. They have to manage equipment. They also have to go out and market their services to make people aware of what’s available.
“The program cuts across all the majors and it turns out to be a ‘boot camp’ for learning, and for creating that business background.”
The Summer Business Institute was open to rising juniors, seniors and 2010 college graduates. In addition to classroom lessons, students visited local businesses and received job-hunting advice from faculty and staff who helped them shape resumes and prepare for interviews.
“We’re not trying to teach the theory at the Summer Business Institute. We’re looking at it from the standpoint of an employer,” Rich said. “What are the basics that I would want a prospective recruit or employee to have?”
On Friday, the students in the inaugural class visited apparel manufacturer T.S. Designs in Burlington. Company president Eric Henry led a tour of the facility while sharing his business philosophies, which include producing environmentally friendly products and following a “triple bottom line” of people, the planet and profits.
Students lauded the program and its faculty for sharing concepts they had not otherwise had the opportunity to explore in their chosen majors.
“The accounting segment got me outside of my comfort zone,” said Julia Jacobs ’10, who graduated last month after majoring in broadcast journalism. “We learned a lot about how taxes work as well. That’s something I never got a chance to explore in my major.”
Nor was the program so full of new information that participants felt overwhelmed. “When I first heard about the program, I thought it would be really, really intense and feared it would be easy to get lost,” said Elon senior Alex Moss, a communications science major. “I’ve been surprised at how well the professors have been making clear what they want us to learn.”
For other students, the Summer Business Institute offered other tangible benefits independent of classroom lessons.
“You get to touch on everything without coming to a class for a whole semester on one topic,” said Elon senior Anna Powell, also noting that the Summer Business Institute expands the number of connections students have on campus with faculty. “It’s given us a new network of professors that are really open to helping us in our academic careers and beyond our time here.”
For more information on the Summer Business Institute, and how to apply for June 2011, contact senior lecturer Coleman Rich at 336-278-5932 or richcole@elon.edu.