Local high school students learn business skills

Local high school students learn business skills
Jones School’s Project GRAD helps Houston seniors earn money for college

BY HELEN RODRIGUEZ
Special to the Rice News

Jose Levya knew it was going to be an interesting summer. Instead of working a summer job like most high school students, the senior at John Reagan High School has been analyzing stocks, writing business plans and rubbing elbows with some of the most prominent names in Houston business while earning a $4,000 college scholarship.

Along with 24 other students from underserved high schools in the Houston area, Levya recently spent four weeks of his summer vacation participating in the Project Graduation Really Achieves Dreams (GRAD) summer institute “Money and Business 101.”

Hosted by Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management and taught by Jones School faculty, the institute aims to educate students about the stock and lending markets, as well as provide an introduction to many general business topics, such as brand marketing and business planning.

When the students successfully complete the institute, they are one step closer to obtaining a $4,000 college scholarship from Project GRAD, a sum that will enable many of them to attend college.

“The primary goal of this program is to change expectations and aspirations,” said Barbara Ostdiek, associate professor of management and coordinator of the summer institute. “We want to focus on giving these students exposure to business in general and we want to broaden their expectations of career paths that are possible for them.”

Vanessa Rodriguez, a senior at Sam Houston High School, said many of the students are already aspiring to go into business as accountants, entrepreneurs and even presidents and chief executive officers.

“We all dream of running our own business someday,” Rodriguez said. “Nobody wants to work for someone else for the rest of their life.”

Project GRAD is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing high school and college graduation rates in underserved communities. Originating in Houston in 1995, Project GRAD has worked with students, parents, teachers and administrators to help improve public education. The program focuses on the five high schools in the Houston Independent School District with the lowest graduation rates and their corresponding feeder schools. Students who attend these schools are largely minorities living in economically disadvantaged areas.

Through teacher training, parental involvement and student programs, Project GRAD hopes to increase high school graduation rates to 80 percent and enable 50 percent of those graduates to attend and complete college.

“Money and Business 101” is just one of seven summer institutes offered to Project GRAD participants. Students who complete two summer institutes, along with other program requirements, are eligible to receive a $4,000 scholarship to help supplement the cost of attending college. To date, Project GRAD has awarded more than 2,400 scholarships to Houston high school seniors.

— Helen Rodriguez is the marketing and public relations intern at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.