KeyBank’s annual Business Leadership Program (BLP) at the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU) campus brought future students to the school to learn more about the business world.
CU students arrived on campus a few weeks ago for the start of the semester, but the Business Leadership Program had already provided a preview of life at the Leeds School of Business for incoming first-year students and rising seniors.
Business Leadership Program is hosted annually
The program is hosted by the Office of Diversity Affairs each year and is offered to Colorado students who identify as underrepresented, diverse, students of color or first-generation; or, students who have an interest in gaining a diverse business experience.
For this year’s event, students worked in teams to create and implement a marketing campaign for corporate partners including KeyBank, Key Equipment Finance, Arrow Electronics, Enterprise, Gogo Business Aviation and TD SYNNEX. Partners from each corporation provided support and answered any questions participants had about their specific case challenges.
Participants network with current students
To help teams build out their campaigns, each team had a team counselor - a current Leeds student - to provide feedback and help them develop innovative solutions and ideas. Participants also attended lectures led by Leeds faculty to help them come up with creative and effective campaigns.
“The success of the KeyBank Business Leadership Program is seen in the growth of participants and the innovative solutions each team proposed for their case challenges,” said Gerardo Ceballos, program manager for Leeds’ Office of Diversity Affairs. “Through BLP’s experiential learning, our participants gained a newfound confidence in their business skills, professional connections and business knowledge.”
Program sessions focus on business topics
Throughout the week, participants also participated in sessions designed to help them prepare for and apply to the Leeds School of Business. Additionally, they took part in sessions with Leeds’ staff that covered diversity, inclusion and social identities, networking, building a business and social media.
Winning team: Key Equipment Finance
The week ended with student teams presenting their campaigns to judges and peers. The winning team was Key Equipment Finance, and those team members each received a $2,000 scholarship to attend Leeds.
Next year’s BLP is scheduled for June 25-July 1, 2023 and applications open up on Dec. 1, 2022.
