usummer pre-college programs portal

Program Description
OLAB is a one-week hands-on introduction to business and the market economy for young women and men entering their senior year in high school. Considered one of the premier summer programs in the country, OLAB teaches students that business can be fun, creative, challenging, and rewarding. The highlight of the week is "The Game." In addition to lectures by business leaders and Wabash faculty, students work in teams running a mock business competition. There is also time for recreation, as well as social activities in the evenings. Students do not have to be planning a career in business to attend. What is required is a desire to learn how about the impact business and the market economy have on our daily lives. Many OLAB graduates are now doctors, lawyers, and teachers, as well as business professionals. 

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Questions for the Director

Justin: Why do students like your program?
Jim – I’m looking for risk-takers. I want good students, sure, but great OLAB students are willing to take a chance on a summercamp that will push them hard and challenge them in ways they’ve not been challenged before. I take no prisoners and we send lazy kids home. A Labbie has to thrive on creative thinking, collaboration, hard work, deadlines, and pressure. OLAB is at its best when students are willing to step outside their comfort zones — step outside that high school social world in which they exist — and work creatively with other bright, talented, and motivated young people. We work hard to bring together 64 students who don’t know each other — or at least team them with people different from themselves — and watch as they work together to solve problems.

But when it comes right down to it, I think students like OLAB because we treat them seriously as adult learners. We throw at them college-level accounting, business, speech-making, marketing, and advertising concepts and then ask them to apply those concepts in the OLAB business world that is really fun. And I think students like OLAB because it’s not just for people interested in business; some of our best students are interested in English, music, and art. 

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Justin: What is your favorite aspect(or day/ activity) of each session?
Jim – Honestly, there’s no one specific activity that stands out because OLAB works as a whole — every lecture, workshop, and activity feeds another.

At the heart of the OLAB program is a really cool business computer simulation game, and I marvel that a handful of econ professors were able to conceive it in 1973 when the only computer on campus was room-sized. After a couple of days of lectures and workshops, students are put in four- or five-person “companies” that compete in the handheld organizer market. They have to identify key features that differentiate their product from the competition, and develop a marketing strategy and advertising campaign to reach the target market. (Back in 1973 they were basically modifying Texas Instruments calculators and adding features. All that changed with the iPhone!)

What blows my mind is how creative and imaginative OLAB students can be. About 12 years ago we had a company incorporate a little known technology in its device. The team’s product was designed for wealthy execs and golf fanatics, and they used GPS technology (which had virtually no commercial application at that point) to help golfers locate their golf balls and measure the distance from their balls to the hole. Then they advertised in Golf Digest and similar publications and made a TV commercial that was brilliant. And you can actually buy that product today!

Another company, probably 15 years ago when cell phones were barely available, imagined a cell phone for kids with big buttons that only called home or police or a neighbor. The Labbies advertised in parenting magazines, and the TV commercial used a classic guilt trip to make parents think they absolutely had to buy this product or they’d be rotten parents. And yep, you can buy that today.

One activity that stands out comes on the day when the students have their companies up and running, they understand production and accounting, and things are beginning to develop a pace and rhythm. Wham! That’s when their “employees” threaten a union strike and these 17 year-old Labbies find themselves face-to-face with real union labor negotiators and attorneys. They have to make a deal in a short period of time, and the company has to swallow all of the aspects of the negotiation — increased wages and vacations, daycare centers, continuing education, improved pension plans. All of that stuff happens in the real world, and it’s all factored into the computer simulation. We once had a negotiator drive such a hard bargain that the company had to change its name — to HIS name! It was hilarious, but it didn’t cost the company anything and the Labbies got increased productivity from the workforce in return. 

Justin: where do your students come from?
Jim – OLAB used to be an Indiana-based program, so Labbies had to be state residents. Over the years it has expanded greatly, and thanks to the Internet, we’re now an international program. Last year we had students from Los Angeles, New Jersey, and even Seoul, Korea. What I like best — the coolest part — is that it’s a scholarship program, so our students come from wildly different socioeconomic backgrounds. When we mix up all these kids who don’t know each other — and if they’re willing to get outside their comfort zones — amazing things happen, intellectually and socially. 

Justin: Do you have any special discounts or scholarships this year?
Jim – We have an admissions committee that selects the OLAB class each year because every student who is selected receives a full scholarship worth about $1200. We’ll select 64 students for the program with a short waiting list. 

Justin: Who teaches your classes -or- what are the credentials of your average summer instructor?
Jim – We have a range of instructors based on what we’re doing at any given time. Students learn effective speech-making from a well-published college rhetoric professor. The stock market is taught by a Harvard-educated economist. Most of the business stuff is taught by a college economics professor who has literally written the book (a textbook) on teaching econ using Excel. The guy who is in charge of all aspects of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship — the guy who negotiates the TV deal, sponsorship, and selects the venues — is our “Game Master” and I’d say he has a little experience in the business world. And we bring in a variety of guest lecturers, from Central Indiana business leaders to a VP at Nike, who last year gave us a sneak peek at the Beijing advertising campaign. It was pretty cool to watch the Olympics and truly understand the marketing strategy behind the TV spots. 

Justin: How much supervised free time, including activities, do students have each day? Any Favorite field trips?
Jim – Students have a couple of hours of recreation time during the afternoon and most use the Allen Athletics Center to blow off steam in the fitness center, shooting hoops, swimming, or jogging. We have basketball, tennis, pool, and euchre tournaments. We hire lots of OLAB graduates who are college students to serve as our counselors, and they develop team-building and fun social activities every night. Labbies have dances, a talent show, a movie night off-campus, a scavenger hunt, a tie-dye t-shirt day, and what ever the counselors come up with. Because the work during the day is pretty rigorous, we give the Labbies plenty of time to have fun. 

Justin: Why do you think pre-college programs are important for students to experience before college?
Jim – Well, I can only speak for THIS pre-college program, but it’s important on several levels. First, Labbies get up close and personal with the workload of a college student at a competitive private college. They have to juggle multiple assignments, do project-based work, hit deadlines, and work collaboratively with other students — they have to build trust with kids they don’t know.

But there’s more to college than working hard. OLAB is fun, to be honest, because it’s application-based learning. We talk about concepts in the classroom, show them examples, and then the students apply those concepts in our simulated business world. And a little healthy competition spices things up!

Sure, Labbies live in dorms, get up early and stay up late, and complain about food service, so in that respect it’s a “pre-college” test drive. OLAB is a little different, though. OLAB is more about relationships — lasting relationships — among the Labbies, their teachers and counselors, and the guest lecturers. In a sense, it’s a network without boundaries of hometown, high school, and familiar social groups. I still hear from Labbies who went through the program 15 years ago.