High school students experience life at Olin through summer programs

Olin’s summer programs for high school students—BOLD@Olin and Gateway to Business—are a great way for aspiring business students to experience life at Olin and begin to drill down into their business interests.

And maybe something more.

“We hope they fall in love with WashU,” said Shawn Brodie, one of the coordinators for the Gateway program. “We have a few days to help them fall in love with it.”

About 70 students from across the country were on the WashU campus for the two programs in mid-July:

BOLD@Olin—A five-day program that gives rising high school juniors and seniors exposure to various areas of business, as well as assisting in their leadership development. Originally geared toward empowering women in business, the program has been expanded in recent years and now includes both female and male students, said one of the coordinators, Anna Russo, academic and student affairs advisor in undergraduate programs.

Gateway to Business—A week-long course for rising high school sophomores, juniors and seniors who may be interested in business school. They’ll come out of the week with new professional development skills and general business credit hours that can be used at Olin or potentially at another college, said Brodie, associate director of academic advising and student affairs for Olin’s undergraduate programs.

Both programs give students the opportunity to work with Olin faculty and alumni and to tackle group projects for outside clients. “We want to give them an idea of what day-to-day life is like here, and to plant the seed of that entrepreneurial spirit that is very much a part of life at Olin,” Brodie said.

The Gateway students worked with the Clark-Fox Family Foundation; they worked in teams to research a business question and made presentations.

The BOLD@Olin students worked with Rosati Kain Academy. “We present the students with a prompt—a problem the company needs help solving, and they work in small teams to address it,” Russo said.

 

Organizers say they frequently see students from their programs return as Olin BSBA students a few years down the line.

“It’s one of the most exciting things about the program,” Russo said. “During the past school year, we had 25 students who were alumni of BOLD@Olin. The number per class is increasing every year.”

Rachel Blackman is a case in point. The BOLD@Olin alum is a rising sophomore in Olin’s BSBA program and worked this summer as a student mentor to the program. She said she originally attended the program to decide whether to apply to Olin through early decision.

It helped convince me. Living in the dorms, going to classes, I could picture myself here. And now I’m here, and it’s lived up to my expectations. 

Rachel Blackman

Students in this year’s summer programs share their impressions from their week at Olin:

BOLD@Olin

Rhea Zhou, junior, North Carolina: “The most impactful thing here has been meeting so many like-minded high school students who also have a passion for business. Everyone here is looking to network with each other.”

Saisha Siram, junior, Texas: “I was really impressed with how amazing the professors here are. The professors seem to genuinely care about the students.”

Amirah Abdul, senior, Illinois: “It was great meeting some of the alumni from WashU. Some of the alumni were on the global track, and I’m interested in the international aspect of business.”

Gateway to Business

Madelyne Voss, senior, St. Louis: “I’ve been getting experience in business, so I can see what realm of business I want to go into. It also gave me a chance to see what it might be like at WashU.”

Maximilian Gray, sophomore, St. Louis: “What I’ve gotten out of it is problem-solving experience. Although business school is definitely about what you learn, it’s really about problem-solving, collaboration and time management.”

Elias Lowrey, senior, Connecticut: “This has been a nice challenge, working on high-level topics, the group aspect of the projects. I’ve been interested in WashU for a while; I know I’ll be applying in the fall.”