UNIQUE PROGRAM EXPOSES

UNDERREPRESENTED

STUDENTS

TO BUSINESS CAREERS

BY LINDSEY FIELDER

aughter filters down the hall into the stairwell. Through the classroom door, teenagers are huddled around computers in small clusters. They are shouting across the room to each other and laughing. Clearly, these high school students are having way too much fun to be learning.

But, if you look closer, you'll see 24 of Texas' top high school students learning about business during the college's second annual Business Careers Awareness Program (BCAP) in June.

Sponsored by Ernst & Young, the program gives underrepresented high school students an opportunity to explore the opportunities at the Mays College by living on campus, attending scaled-down business classes and creating their own mock business.

As students arrived on campus for the weeklong program, they had no idea what to expect from BCAP or each other. The participants started out apprehensive and quiet.

Joe Medina, a junior accounting major and BCAP counselor, has seen this before. He was a counselor last year too. The participants have to get a feel for one another at first, he says. And after the first few days of lectures and team-building activities, they act as though they had always known each other.

Throughout the week, participants encountered classroom lectures on accounting, marketing and management. They paid close attention because these were the tools they would be expected to put into action. Their assignment: develop a business plan for a restaurant in College Station.

Each group of four or five high school students, along with a counselor (a Mays business student) and tutor, created the plan from scratch. Each group researched information on their business' marketability and feasibility.

At the end of the week, the groups presented their business plans to faculty and staff advisors and the other teams, who also served as judges. Cash awards in the amount of $50 were given to each member of the winning team, while two other awards were given to the Most Technical and Most Creative groups.

"They advised us to choose something simple in the restaurant industry," says Geoff Ellis, a senior at Reagan High School in San Antonio. "My group chose a snow cone business called Cool Cones. Our slogan was 'Cool Cones for Hot People.'"

These students took what could have been a boring project and turned it into an opportunity to be creative. "I liked [the project] because it exposed us to every area of business," says Julia Gonzalez, a senior at Duchesne High School in Houston. "At first, it was intimidating, but then I saw how fun and creative it could be."

Myra Gonzalez, the college's recruitment coordinator, says she wanted students to go away from the week with an excitement for business. True to the program's mission, she also wanted them to realize the opportunities available at the Mays College and Texas A&M. "We want them to decide A&M is the place they want to come [for college]," says Gonzalez, who oversaw this year's BCAP.

BCAP has already been successful, as seven of last year's 33 participants will be majoring in business at Texas A&M this fall. Former BCAP participant Mary Saucedo, an incoming freshman from McAllen, will be one of them.

"After I attended BCAP and was able to sit in on classes, meet students, tour campus and live like a student in a residence hall, I made the decision to put A&M as my first choice," she says.

BCAP seems to have impacted this year's participants in the same way. Ellis says he had never even been to A&M before he came to the program. "I'm pretty impressed with the friendly atmosphere," he says. "After coming [to BCAP], I know I'll definitely apply to A&M." @