Focused on getting more students involved in business careers, the program takes 240 local middle and high school students (45 at each university) who have been selected because of their perceived high levels of unrealized potential and embeds them in the intense, seven-week program with a variety of hands-on business projects in finance and entrepreneurship. They read The Wall Street Journal everyday, manage and track a $100,000 fictitious stock portfolio, visit executives at more than 20 Fortune 500 companies in the greater Los Angeles area, and develop business plans for legitimate businesses that are then pitched to area executives. Winners of the stock portfolio game and the business plan competition are awarded $18,000 in scholarships and cash awards. Amanda Bravo, the valedictorian from the CSUDH-hosted program, wasn’t sure she wanted to give up her summer at first, but looking back, has very few regrets.

“I wish I had been able to sleep a little later sometimes, but that’s pretty much it. It let me see new things and broadened my horizons. It also showed me that I can take on more than I thought I could. I mean, I was up until two in the morning some nights finishing up our business plan, so it made me realize if I can do that for a summer program, then I better be able to do it for school because that’s what’s going to get me into college,” she says.

In such an environment where students are singled out for their unrealized potential and are given the support needed to believe in themselves, there are some incredible success stories. Ouroumian rattles them off at a frenetic pace. Like the one in which one of the first students coming through the program after Ouroumian took over as director in 1998 was first introduced to accounting at SBI and now works at Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Like the one about an 18-year-old girl was 160 units short of graduating from high school when she entered last year’s program. She graduated last month with a 4.0 GPA and has spent time in New York and London on fellowships with Merrill Lynch learning about banking and financial investing. Ouroumian also points out that ninety-nine percent of last year’s graduating class is currently enrolled at a two- or four-year university.

”I always say we turn these kids from victims of circumstance into masters of their own destiny. But really, once we give them that spark and help them believe in themselves, it’s a lot easier than people think. I can see some of these kids taking that light and bringing it to help their communities and families, sure, but also society and the world as a whole,” says Ouroumian.

The program is one of Los Angeles’ most diverse – ethnically, socio-economically, educationally – and its success has built a heady following of some 300 volunteers committed to seeing it continue. It’s also why CSUDH donates campus space to host the program.

“We love any organization that inspires kids to pursue business careers, but people may not realize how closely the Academy and CSUDH are bound. We’re partners in helping students achieve the same dream,” says CBAPP Dean James Strong. “They inspire children from the same communities which CSUDH serves and get them on the track to pursue a college degree. We then take those same students and give them the tools and degree they need to realize those dreams."

For more information on the Academy of Business Leadership and its programs, of which the Summer Business Institute is just one, visit goabl.com.