Rowan University’s Rohrer College of Business (RCB) is partnering with New Jersey’s Kingsway Regional High School (KRHS) in an effort to provide high school students the opportunity to acquire skills for the 21st century business world.

The Business Leadership Academy (BLA) is a four-year program designed to give KRHS students a comprehensive knowledge of business. The partnership with Rowan University will afford students to take select courses during their senior year of high school and during the summers between their junior and senior year on Rowan’s campus. The program will begin this year and will be made up of 22 students.

One of the courses offered is “Think Like an Entrepreneur,” which is a three-credit Rowan course. Students who complete this course will also be able to take other select Rohrer College of Business courses.

“Students completing the academy will receive automatic admission to RCB as long as they meet all admissions requirements set forth by the university,” said Rohrer College of Business Dean Sue Lehrman. “Through the partnership, Rowan also will award three, $8,500 Rowan Start Scholarships to qualifying graduating students of the BLA. The scholarship funds will be distributed over four years.”

Through a curriculum based on preparing students for advanced college study, Chief Academic Officer at KRHS Patricia Calandro hopes students will be effectively prepared for college business programs through exposure to various foundations critical to the business world with a focus on collaboration, project-based learning and emphasis on 21^st century learning.

“The curriculum aims to advance 21st century skills that support innovative and entrepreneurial thinking and foster a realistic understanding of professional business environments and employer expectations,” Calandro said. “Additionally the BLA’s partnership with Rowan will allow students to experience [the] university’s campus, classes, and interact with its professors prior to graduating high school.”

The partnership will allow KRHS faculty to work with Rowan professors in order to strengthen the BLA. Sponsoring a “Rowan Day” on its Glassboro campus, the university will welcome KRHS faculty as they tour campus, collaborate with professors from their specific disciplines, meet with professionals, attend course sessions and meet with Rowan students.

“Kingsway faculty will be paired with Rowan University professors to collaborate and identify critical subject-matter knowledge, core concepts and pedagogical strategies that promote and advance student learning in their particular subject area,” Calandro said.

Another “Rowan Day” will also be held for KRHS students, which will give them the opportunity to interact with Rowan students and professors and tour the new Rohrer College of Business building.

“The [BLA] is advantageous to the Rohrer College of Business and Rowan [because] it offers us access to top students who, we hope, will consider coming to Rowan,” Lehrman said.

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