Contact: Alan Moore
Phone: 765-282-6400 X 105
Email: Amoore@asgcorp.org
IU East Contact: Tim Scales
Phone: 765-973-8620
Email: Tscales@Indiana.edu
Eastern Indiana Regional Workforce Board and IU East
to Conduct Business Plan Contest
Regional organizations to conduct High School Business Plan
Contest
Muncie, IN: The Eastern Indiana Regional Workforce Board (RWB) announced today the selection of Indiana University East to develop and
implement the curriculum for the regional High School Business Plan contest to be known as BOSS
(Business Opportunities for Self Starters). According to Jim Riggle, Regional Workforce Board Chair,
“We are very pleased to partner with such a well respected academic institution as Indiana University East,
and the Entrepreneurship Center.”
The contest funded through a Strategic Skills Initiative (SSI) grant from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development will focus on
introducing students at the high school level to the skills and knowledge to be a successful entrepreneur. According to IU East
Entrepreneurship Director Tim Scales, “It is important that we plant the seed now in the high school students to show that they can
start their own business in the future.”
The program will consist of two parts: a series of classes focused on entrepreneurship and business plan writing. The entrepreneurial
curriculum has been developed with the following features:
Curriculum will include 54 hours of classroom instruction on business plan
writing and entrepreneurship.
Curriculum meets the Indiana Department of Education standards
for instruction as relates to high school curriculum.
Students completing the project will be eligible to receive
3 credit hours of college credit.
At the end of the modules, the students will enter a business plan contest, with the winner of each county going to a regional
contest. According to Scales, “An important factor of the contest is that it will be judged by experienced business professionals
from the region, and this will expose the student’s ideas to real world business professionals.”
The program will feature several incentives to encourage students in the program including:
The opportunity to earn $600 by completing the program
Earn a weekly gas card worth $20 a week in gas
Compete for prizes in a regional business plan competition
The program will be offered in at least one location
in each of the Eastern Indiana counties of Blackford,
Delaware, Fayette, Henry, Jay, Randolph, Rush, Union,
and Wayne. According to Riggle, “The mission of SSI as
a whole is to build entrepreneurship from the ground up
in the entire community, and to encourage high school
students to think about entrepreneurship as another career
option.”
For more information visit: www.HighSchoolBoss.com
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