Ball State, Launch Fishers Partner
(photo courtesy Samantha Blankenship/Ball State University)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA partnership between Ball State University and Launch Fishers is giving high school students in the Hamilton Southeastern School District the chance to learn about entrepreneurship while earning college credit. The university’s Miller College of Business will offer a dual-credit course next summer at its new hub at Launch Fishers which Dean Jennifer Bott says will complement the Launch Fishers High School Fellowship.
Bott says the seven-week course will give students a high-level introduction into what entrepreneurship is. "It gives them the foundation of understanding the life cycles of businesses and the content and understanding necessary to tackle an entrepreneurial venture."
Bott says the Launch Fishers fellowship will give students a practical application of the things they learn in the dual-credit course. The fellowship is a program launched this summer in which 10 students spend 8-10 weeks being paid to work with host companies at Launch Fishers and learn what it is like to be an entrepreneur.
"We are excited to partner with Ball State to offer a dual-credit entrepreneurship course to students at Fishers and HSE schools," said John Wechsler, founder of Launch Fishers. "This extension of the Launch Fishers High School Fellowship will offer students an academic introduction to entrepreneurship combined with real world experience gained in working with entrepreneurial companies."
Douglas Harter, director of the College and Career Academy at Hamilton Southeastern High School, says the dual-credit course was a year in the making. He approached the university after learning about the fellowship at Launch Fishers. He calls the course a "win-win" for the students, Ball State and the Fishers community.
Bott says the course also gives students interested in entrepreneurship to test the waters at Ball State "within the safety net of high school."
Bott says the course will give students a high-level introduction into what entrepreneurship is all about.