BOSTON - Harvard Business School (HBS) welcomed seventy-nine undergraduate students from forty-nine different schools this week to participate in the School's Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP). For more than twenty years, the program has encouraged high-achieving college students entering their senior year to consider business school as an option after graduation by enabling them to spend a week on campus and live the life of a Harvard MBA student.

Designed for undergraduates who otherwise may not have considered business school an option after college, SVMP aims to increase diversity and opportunity in business education. Participants are often from a family with little business experience; the first family member to attend college; or a member of a group that is currently underrepresented in business schools and corporate America.

This year's students received nominations from more than 60 organizations where they have secured summer internships, including Apple Inc., Goldman Sachs, The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Nike. Participants were then carefully selected by HBS based on academic achievement, demonstrated leadership, and personal characteristics.

The students are immersed in a week-long experience similar to that of a traditional MBA student, with HBS covering the cost of tuition, meals, and housing, and sponsoring organizations providing salaries and transportation. Participants attend full-time faculty led class discussions using the renowned case method of instruction, and work together in intensely interactive study groups, grappling with real-life management situations. For example, students focus on evolving business models via a case study on Starbucks. The program is also supplemented by presentations by HBS administrators and alumni who provide information about the lifelong impact of an MBA degree.

HBS Professor Benjamin Esty, faculty chair of the SVMP, notes that the program allows students to experience the excitement of graduate level business education. According to Esty, the rewards are reciprocal: "It is extremely rewarding to see how just one week can change the way students approach complex business issues and the way they envision their futures."

While attendance in SVMP does not guarantee admission to HBS, participants are encouraged to consider a graduate business degree after completing their undergraduate education. Admission to both programs (SVMP and MBA) is highly competitive.

About Harvard Business School
Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School (www.hbs.edu) is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 200 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and doctoral degrees, as well as more than 40 Executive Education programs. For almost a century, HBS faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching to educate leaders who have shaped the practice of business around the globe.