IU East BOSS program teaches high school, college students about business
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For nearly 20 years, the director of Indiana University East’s Center for Entrepreneurship has invested in future Hoosier entrepreneurs through the BOSS program.
Tim Scales was approached by the state to create a curriculum that teaches high school students how to create a business plan.
“The BOSS program is a way … to truly understand what entrepreneurship is all about, how it works, and how to create their ideas and bring it to the market,” Scales said.
BOSS stands for “Business Opportunities for Self Starters,” and has been a part of IU East for the last 18 years. Scales says he’s worked one-on-one with each of the 7,000 students who have gone through the program.
BOSS takes students, like Hagerstown Jr./Sr. High School graduate Maggie Retherford, outside of the classroom and connects them with entrepreneurs.
“I realized that we were going to be involved in different businesses and companies within Wayne County that I would just see just driving by, but I never really knew what they were about until the BOSS program,” Retherford said. “It got me involved in the community, and it got me to see a different aspect of the community I’ve been involved in.”
“[Students] get to see how excited [entrepreneurs] are, how passionate they are and then they want to be a part of it as well,” Scales said. “They actually can see that they’ll be able to do it once they’ve watched other people be able to do it.”
In the past, the program was offered to high school students and as an intensive for recent college graduates. Now, Scales plans to offer two programs: one for high schoolers and one for college students going from their junior year to senior year.
“I adjust my programs every single semester, even in my regular classrooms, because I feel like you have to adapt to changing society,” Scales said. “I learn from the students at the same time they’re learning from me. I’ll teach them the foundation and the fundamentals, but then, oftentimes they’ll show me how we can apply it so we learn together.”