Earlier this month Butler Tech and Miami University conducted an entrepreneurship summer break program for area high school students in a first-time experiment for the local career school system. Miami Professor and Richard A. Forsythe Chair in Entrepreneurship at the university’s Farmer School of Business conducts one of the classes at Butler Tech’s main campus in Fairfield Twp Contributed
Earlier this month, Butler Tech and Miami University conducted an entrepreneurship summer break program for area high school students in a first-time experiment for the local career school system.
Designed for freshmen and sophomore students who were not able to enroll at Butler Tech for the coming school year but are interested in learning more about the business-oriented programs for future enrollment applications, the three-day program is designed to keep students connected to the school, said Butler Tech officials.
“We wanted these students and families to know that they matter to us,” said Jeremy West, entrepreneurship coordinator at Butler Tech.
“Even if they don’t have the opportunity to attend Butler Tech this year, we wanted them to experience what makes our community special. Entrepreneurship isn’t just about starting businesses. It’s about helping young people believe their ideas matter and giving them the confidence to turn those ideas into action,” said West.
The new program included a partnership with the nationally acclaimed Farmer School of Business at Miami University.
Students gathered at Butler Tech’s D. Russel Lee Campus in Fairfield Twp. where, according to school officials, “ideas quickly turned into possibilities.”
According to school officials: “On the first day, many students arrived as strangers. Some were nervous. Some had never presented in front of others. But by the end of the week, those same students would be pitching original businesses in front of business leaders and family members at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business.”
Campers identified problems they cared about and used design thinking to transform those challenges into opportunities. As the week progressed, ideas became logos, brands, financial plans and professional presentations.
Students spent a day at the Farmer School of Business on Miami’s main Oxford campus, where faculty members guided them through business modeling and helped refine the ideas they had developed throughout the week.
Families were invited to attend the camp’s culminating Shark Tank-style pitch competition, filling the room with excitement and anticipation as students prepared to take the stage.
Another program partner, radio’s JonJon and Friends from Kiss 107.1, brought a mobile studio directly to Butler Tech, broadcasting live from inside the school’s Entrepreneurship Center.
Students stepped behind the microphone to share their ideas with listeners across Greater Cincinnati, said school officials.
Students pitched businesses ranging from car detailing services and clothing brands to a redesigned gaming controller.
Jeni Al Bahrani, a professor from Miami’s entrepreneur department, thanked Butler Tech officials for “trusting us with your program and the pitch competition.”
“It was a lot of fun, and I left inspired by what the students accomplished,” said Bahrani.
