Introducing Our First Freshman Honors Program This year’s larger-than-expected entering freshman class provided an unexpected but welcome opportunity for the school and its students. We have created a freshman honors program for excellent students; their participation in the program enables us to free up space in two otherwise required first-semester courses. Thirty-five recipients of merit-based scholarships accepted our invitation to participate in the honors program as a substitute for World of Business and First-Year Seminar in Business. The honors program consists of a three-credit course in the basic practices of management and a one-credit workshop in which those practices are applied to an organization created by the students. In the workshop, students are asked to form an organization in which they serve as workers and managers. The organization’s primary mission is to make a positive difference in the community by selecting and supporting a worthy charitable cause. In market economies, business is the sole creator of wealth. The tax revenues and philanthropic gifts that support governmental and not-for-profit organizations originate in the for-profit sector of the economy. Students in this program are being required to create a profit-making entity to support their organization’s charitable objectives. The entity has to explore opportunities to make a profit, create a business plan for pursuing the opportunity selected, apply to the school for working capital, and go into business. The venture capital to be used in the course was provided through the generosity of Michael Serventi ’72 and Gail Weir Serventi ’72. Learning while Experiencing Meanwhile, the students will have been attending a course on the basics of management. The goals of that course are to provide instruction on a "just-in-time" basis and to examine students’ experiences as the basics are put into practice in the workshop. Thus, as students are getting organized, the course will cover the principles of organization. While they prepare to apply to the school for capital, they’ll be studying financial markets. Moreover, the course will help them understand the problems they will experience as their organization moves from each stage in its development to the next. As the fall semester draws to a close, the students liquidate their organization and prepare a report, similar to an annual report, on the organization’s performance. Profit realized from operations, after paying expenses and returning the school’s operating capital, will be distributed to the charities they have chosen. In the event that the organization experiences an operating loss, the school will absorb the loss.
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A. Ozolins, Ithaca College Office of Publications, 21. Mar. 2002