CINCINNATI — The next generation of women business owners is getting a head-start. A new program at an all-girls high school is giving students not only the chance to earn college credit, but to take advantage of the resources one of the nation's top-ranked business schools has to offer.
What You Need To Know
- UC and St. Ursula are partnering to provide high school students a college-level entrepreneurship course
- The class will be taught by a UC professor on St. Ursula's campus
- After a Women in Business club was created at St. Ursula by students, it became evident more offerings in the business world were needed
- The class will begin in the fall and will be offered to juniors and seniors
Inside the cafeteria at St. Ursula Academy in Cincinnati, Caroline Reinhart shares laughs with her friends in between classes.
Despite a break from her studies, the sophomore takes school very seriously. She’s a founder of the school’s women in business club.
“We just thought that the business side of St Ursula was lacking, and we just thought we could add something," Reinhart said.
Leila Kramer, the president of St. Ursula, said they had roughly 70 students that wanted to be in the club.
“And it became quite apparent to the school community that this is something we really need to embrace and provide for our girls," she said.
From that, an idea came. What if students at St. Ursula could take a college-level business course? That’s when the University of Cincinnati stepped in.
“One of our great hopes is that we’re helping young students, in this case, the young women of St. Ursula, start to explore what they could get excited about, be passionate about," said Marianne Lewis, the dean of UC's Lindner's College of Business. "We say at Lindner that we are about empowering business problem solvers, and entrepreneurship is a powerful problem-solving tool.”
The university and the high school are partnering on a college credit plus course in entrepreneurship, something the business school excels at but that also has grown in popularity.
“I’m really excited to learn more about business and see if I would like to do that in the future," Reinhart said. "I have a feeling it’s going to be a challenge, like I think I’m going to like the challenge it provides me, just like to learn something new.”
But what truly makes this partnership different is the fact that these students will have access to UC’s Center for Entrepreneurship and the business school’s co-curricular activities like pitch competitions.
“This is the first entrepreneurship course in a high school that is actually a partnership beyond the course itself," Lewis said. "Meaning bringing them to campus, engaging them in pitch competitions. They will be college students at St. Ursula when they are in that course. So they have access to other opportunities here.”
For Reinhart, it’s a perfect opportunity to try a new passion and see where it can take her.
“I’m really excited," she said. "I feel like that’s a great opportunity for students to get taught by a college professor and get used to studying at a college level course and without even having to leave St. Ursula.”