Course Descriptions

Business, Finance, and Markets Courses

Accounting & Finance: From Business Idea to Business Value

In this two-week experiential course, students learn accounting and finance basics for entrepreneurial leaders by working with a real startup. Week one focuses on designing the business for sustainable long-term value creation and cash flow generation; week two develops a business plan with financial projections and enterprise value assessment. Finally, the students will pitch their proposals to the start-up’s founder(s).

Program Faculty: Brigitte Muehlmann and Jia Hao

Babson Entrepreneurial Investor Lab: Decode Companies, Allocate Capital, Pitch Your Strategy

Learn to evaluate companies, allocate capital, and pitch investment strategies in this high-energy finance lab. Rising juniors and seniors will analyze real companies, develop an Investment Policy Statement, and manage a simulated $100,000 portfolio. Plus: AI-powered finance—learn prompt engineering to speed up research, then verify results using trusted sources. You’ll practice valuation, risk management, and evidence-based decision-making—finishing with a Portfolio Demo Day presentation. Grounded in Babson’s Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® methodology.

Program Faculty: Jia Hao

Commodities Trading

Step into the fast-moving world of global commodities trading in this simulation-driven finance course. Rising juniors and seniors will use realistic trading software in Babson’s state-of-the-art finance lab to explore market dynamics and trading opportunities in natural gas, crude oil, gasoline, and heating oil. You’ll build financial models to analyze risks and identify arbitrage opportunities, build intuition for how information is incorporated into prices, and experience the excitement and pressures traders face—no prior finance background required.

Program Faculty: Ryan Davies

Finance for Real Life: Money, Markets, and Informed Decisions

Finance is no longer adult only. Today, teenagers can access investing earlier than ever through custodial accounts and investing apps. This course teaches students how to think clearly about money, markets, risk, and valuation through interactive discussions and hands-on activities. Students learn practical financial literacy for real life, including how to evaluate opportunities responsibly, understand tradeoffs, and avoid common pitfalls. Ideal for students curious about business, entrepreneurship, or becoming smarter and more confident with money.

Program Faculty: Ahmed Ahmed

Fund Your Future: An Entrepreneur's Financial Roadmap

In this course, we will link your personal goals and motivations to critical concepts involving finance and entrepreneurship as we examine funding and capital management opportunities and challenges encountered by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial investors. You will work in teams on experiential case analyses, hands-on financial and entrepreneurial exercises, and a comprehensive, interactive team-based live simulation. The simulation will offer you the opportunity to engage with classmates portraying entrepreneurs and VCs (venture capitalists) in a simulated, but realistic, negotiating environment. You will assume roles as startup founders or investors, managing the fundraising cycle - from valuation to negotiating funding terms.

Program Faculty: Kevin Sweeney

Inside Wall Street: How Investors Find Winning Stocks

Inside Wall Street: How Investors Find Winning Stocks is a rigorous, one-week program for high school students who want to learn how professional investors evaluate companies, determine what a stock is worth, and make disciplined investment decisions in today’s markets. The course immerses students in the same tools, analytical frameworks, and research processes used by Wall Street professionals. Working in small teams, students will analyze a real public company, develop a data-driven investment thesis, and present their findings in a professional-style stock pitch that mirrors institutional practice.

Program Faculty: Patrick Gregory

Intro to Business Strategy and Consulting

Step into the world of consulting and business strategy through real-world cases and team-based problem-solving. Rising juniors and seniors will learn how companies assess markets, analyze competitors, and make strategic decisions. You’ll practice breaking down complex problems, synthesizing insights, and presenting recommendations—building skills valued in business, consulting, and entrepreneurship.

Program Faculty: Richard Wang

Real Estate Market Moves: Unlocking the Secrets to Investing

Discover how entrepreneurs and investors evaluate the housing market, manage risk, and build long-term wealth through real estate. In this one-week immersive course, students learn to analyze markets, value properties, understand financing, and see how contracts and negotiation shape real estate deals. Through real-world examples, financial analysis, and hands-on simulations, students develop an investor mindset and use practical tools to evaluate potential investments. Although focused on residential real estate, the analytical skills developed also translate to commercial real estate and prepare students for future study in business, finance, law, and entrepreneurship.

Program Faculty: Erin Escobedo

Personal Finance: Dollars and Sense

The five pillars of personal finance are Earning, Spending, Saving, Borrowing, and Protecting. Together, they help you take care of your money now and prepare for the future. When you understand these areas, you can make smart choices, avoid money problems, and build financial security over time. If you do not have a plan, I suggest you panic!

The course will provide pre-class videos of each topic to be reviewed in advance of the daily classes. Students will be using a financial calculator/excel along with a budgeting app. Upon completion each day, students will need to complete and upload homework on each topic. Successful completion of the assignments in a timely fashion earns the Personal Finance Warrior Certificate.

Program Faculty: Mark Potter and Glenn Migliozzi

The Economics Lab: Testing How the World Works

This is a hands-on introduction to economics for rising high school juniors and seniors. Instead of starting with lectures, students run experiments, play strategy games, and participate in simulations that reveal how markets, incentives, and policies really work. From building toy cars and fishing for crackers to deciding new airline routes and negotiating policies for climate change, students learn economics by doing it.

Program Faculty: Jason Wong

Entrepreneurship and Startup Launch Courses

Biotech Entrepreneurship

Some of the world’s most pressing challenges including feeding a growing population, fighting disease, and protecting our planet. These problems demand bold, science-driven solutions and biotechnology is leading the way! In this hands-on, lab-based course, students will explore the full spectrum of biotech applications from engineering sustainable materials and improving crops to developing new medicines and redesigning industrial processes. Through hands-on experiments and real-world case studies, students will also explore the business and ethical decisions that turn scientific discoveries into real-world impacts.

Program Faculty: Julie De Zutter

Discover Your Why: Strengths, Purpose, and Entrepreneurial Thinking

Find your purpose. Own your future. What drives you? In this one-week intensive, you’ll discover your personal “why”—the North Star that guides every great entrepreneur and leader. Using Babson’s signature Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® methodology and CliftonStrengths assessments, you’ll uncover your natural talents, explore what matters most to you, and craft a clear Why Statement you can use for college essays, interviews, and life. You’ll leave with the confidence to articulate who you are and the impact you want to make.

Program Faculty: Diana Hechavarria

Entrepreneurship for Artists and Musicians

Learn entrepreneurship by building a business around your creative passion. In this intensive one-week course, you'll apply entrepreneurship frameworks to your work as a musician, artist, designer, or performer. Through hands-on experimentation, you will validate business ideas, interview potential customers, and pitch concepts to develop entrepreneurial skills that transfer to any career path.

Program Faculty: Angela Randolph

Think. Build. Lead. Entrepreneurship in a Policy-Shaped World

You will explore how policies, social values, and ethics influence entrepreneurship, free enterprise, and prosperity for all. Specifically, you will engage in various activities and exercises aimed at illustrating how the intersection of government, business, and society inform entrepreneurial thought and action. Topics will span various academic disciplines and include entrepreneurial identity, market research, prototyping, and business models, among others. The course is designed as an experiential class to mirror Babson’s teaching pedagogy and to give you a taste of the interactive nature of Babson classes. As such, lecturing will be limited, and active engagement in and outside the classroom will be required to maximize both the learning (and the fun!).

Program Faculty: Lily Crosina and Andrew Corbett

Finance for Entrepreneurs: Advancing Your Idea from a Hobby to a Career

So you have an idea, or maybe not, but you’re working on it. What do you need to do to see if it is possible to advance your idea to go from a hobby to a possible job or even career? What do banks and investors want to see, what are the key financial metrics and objectives, and in short, what do you need to know about numbers to get to where you want to go? This course will help get you there.

Program Faculty: Mark Potter

Introduction to Franchising: Launching your Brand

How do startups become global brands? In this hands-on summer course for high school students, you’ll explore franchising as a powerful pathway for entrepreneurship and venture growth. From brands like McDonald’s and Dunkin’ to local franchise success stories, you’ll learn how businesses scale nationally and globally through real-world examples, applied discussion, case exploration, and entrepreneurial thinking.

Program Faculty: Ab Igram

Launchpad AI: Building a Startup from Scratch with the AI-Driven Entrepreneurship Model

In this dynamic one-week intensive, rising juniors and seniors will step into the shoes of a founder to build a company from “Zero to One.” By merging the timeless “First Principles” of entrepreneurship with the exponential power of modern AI tools, students will learn not just how to use technology, but how to think—and act!—like innovators. Guided by the AIDE Model (AI-Driven Entrepreneurship), students will move rapidly through the entrepreneurial lifecycle. They will move beyond theory, utilizing AI as a co-founder to accelerate market research, generate prototypes, and craft compelling narratives, while simultaneously grounding their work in human-centric validation. This is not a coding camp; it is a leadership and strategy intensive designed to build the confidence required to launch real ventures.

Program Faculty: Paul Cheek

Startup Sprint: Two Weeks to Launch!

This course challenges students to build, brand, and launch a real product in just two weeks. Using AI and digital tools, teams move fast—testing ideas, experimenting with marketing, and learning from real customers. If you’re curious about startups and want to learn by doing, this sprint is for you. Grounded in Babson’s Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® methodology. Get ready for an amazing two weeks of fun and creativity!

Program Faculty: Ruth Gilleran

Sustainable Venture Studio: Build a Sustainable Business Model

Build a venture that’s good for business and good for the environment in this hands-on studio course. Through fast-paced simulations, design sprints, and real-world tools (stakeholder mapping, Design for the Environment, and lightweight impact assessment), you will learn how entrepreneurs and companies turn climate and sustainability challenges into market opportunities. Working in teams, you will design and validate a sustainable business model, from value proposition and customers to product design, profit, and supply chain choices, and then pitch your venture concept with evidence from customer insight, data, and impact metrics.

Program Faculty: Sinan Erzurumlu

AI, Data, and Building with Tech Courses

Build a Neural Network! An Introduction to Machine Learning

Are you ready to build the future? In this hands-on lab course, students will learn the basics of coding in R, create predictive models, and even design a simple neural network. Perfect for beginners, this course combines practical skills with big ideas, giving students a taste of how machine learning powers the world around us.

Program Faculty: Eric Chan

Collaborating with AI to Develop an Entrepreneurial Venture

Build your business at the speed of AI. In this one-week, experiment-heavy course you’ll learn how entrepreneurs use artificial intelligence as a strategic partner to test ideas and accelerate early venture development. You’ll explore how to prompt, question, and verify AI-generated insights while shaping a concept that reflects your own judgment and creativity. Through rapid research sprints, hands-on prototyping, and simple market experiments, you’ll pressure-test your idea and learn when to trust the technology—and when to challenge it. By the end, you’ll present a small but well-supported venture concept and walk away with practical skills for using AI thoughtfully in any future project.

Program Faculty: Angela Randolph 

Connectivity Project: Human-Centered Design with AI for Equitable, Intergenerational Connection

In Connectivity Project, you will learn design thinking by partnering with older adults to create solutions that strengthen social connection without relying on screens. You will conduct interviews and observations, build empathy and journey maps, develop personas, and turn real insights into compelling “How might we …?” questions. Using AI responsibly, you will expand your ideas through structured brainstorming and then select and prototype a concept that is equitable, practical, and meaningful. In team showcase you will demonstrate a solution designed to enable happier, more content intergenerational engagement.

Program Faculty: Sinan Erzurumlu

Foundations of AI: Leveraging Big Data to Discover Patterns and Make Predictions

Artificial intelligence powers many of the digital tools we use every day, from recommendations and search results to pricing and personalization. In this hands-on course, students learn how modern AI and machine learning systems work by writing real code, analyzing large datasets, and building algorithms that discover patterns and make predictions. Students will learn the basics of the R programming language before using it to explore recommendation systems, predictive models, clustering, and association rules through guided labs and applied projects. Designed for beginners, the course emphasizes learning by doing and working with real data.

Program Faculty: Benjamin Levy

Living with Algorithms: Social Media, AI, and Society

Social media and artificial intelligence shape nearly every aspect of modern life—but how well do we really understand them? In this intensive two-week course, students will use insights from media studies to explore how digital platforms and AI systems influence identity, relationships, politics, labor, and the environment. Through discussion, short lectures, and real-world case studies, students learn to question technologies they often take for granted and to think critically about their ethical and social consequences. Ideal for rising juniors and seniors seeking a rigorous, thought-provoking introduction to college-level media studies.

Program Faculty: Xinghua Li

Numbers, Models, and Morals: A Journey from Statistics to AI

Discover how numbers shaped today’s technological world! This one-week intensive course takes students on a fascinating journey from the birth of statistics to the age of algorithms and artificial intelligence. Through lively discussions and thought-provoking readings, students will explore how data drives decisions and why ethical responsibility matters more than ever.

Program Faculty: Eric Chan

The Tech-Enabled Founder: Building MVPs with AI, Python & Data

In today’s entrepreneurial landscape, the most successful leaders aren’t just “idea people”— they are creators. This intensive, one-week experiential course transforms students from technology consumers into creators. Using a “Launch First” methodology, students will spend Day 1 building and deploying a live professional website via GitHub Pages, leveraging LLMs (Large Language Models) to accelerate their development process. Grounded in Babson’s Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® methodology.

Throughout the week, students will master the "Founder’s Tech Stack": managing data with relational databases, automating tasks with Python, and generating insights through data analysis. The course culminates in the development of a functional web application (MVP) designed to solve a real-world problem. By blending technical rigor with entrepreneurial logic, students will leave with a digital portfolio and the confidence to lead in a tech-driven world.

Program Faculty: Matthew Macarty

Vibe Coding for Business

Build and deploy real digital products with AI—no prior coding experience required. In this future-facing, hands-on course for rising high school juniors and seniors, students use AI as a development interface to create websites, automate workflows, and prototype business ideas simply by describing what they want to build.

Vibe coding is a natural-language-driven way of building with AI that helps students focus on product behavior, iteration, and outcomes rather than programming syntax. Throughout the course, students develop a clear understanding of how modern software products work and how to guide AI effectively as part of the building process. By the end of the course, students will have a portfolio of deployed projects to share with colleges, clubs, or future collaborators.

Program Faculty: Zhi Li

Health, Food, and The Environment Courses

Cooking & Food Science

This is science you can taste. This course invites students to explore the chemistry, biology, and physics behind everyday cooking. From understanding how gluten forms in baked goods to uncovering the reactions responsible for browning and flavor development, students connect core science concepts to the kitchen. Whether students love to cook, or are simply curious about food, this course connects core scientific principles to real foods and real kitchens.

Program Faculty: Chuck Winrich

Environmental Justice Entrepreneurs

Think like an environmental entrepreneur and turn today’s environmental challenges into powerful solutions. This course invites students to address environmental justice issues through hands-on collaboration, solution design, and entrepreneurial thinking. Students work in teams to develop ideas and pitch them in a dynamic Shark Tank–style presentation focused on real impact. Take the lead. Create the change. For our planet.

Program Faculty: Margaret Hassey

Exploring Careers in Business and Healthcare

In this immersive, hands‑on course for rising juniors and seniors, you’ll discover just how many exciting pathways exist within this ever‑evolving field. From public health to clinical care, from insurance and regulation to cutting‑edge health innovation, you’ll explore it all through interactive activities, real‑world simulations, and meaningful problem‑solving challenges.

You won’t just learn about healthcare careers—you’ll experience them. Through engaging case studies and conversations with experts across the industry, you’ll see how different specialties collaborate to improve lives, strengthen communities, and push the boundaries of what’s possible.

By the end, you’ll walk away energized, inspired, and equipped with a clearer sense of where you might thrive in the healthcare ecosystem and the skills you’ll need to get there.

Program Faculty: Michele Bernier and Errol Norwitz

Fashion and the Environment

Fashion is one of the most influential industries in the world, and one of the most damaging to the environment. This course pulls back the curtain on fast fashion, global supply chains, and the hidden environmental and social costs behind everyday clothing. Through case studies, brand analyses, and creative challenges, students rethink consumption, identify greenwashing, and design solutions for a more sustainable and ethical future of fashion. Every outfit has a story.

Program Faculty: Margaret Hassey

Food Systems, Sustainability & Entrepreneurial Solutions

Investigate the future of food—and design entrepreneurial solutions that support a more sustainable and equitable food system. Immersive, hands-on experiences will allow students to investigate today’s most pressing food system challenges while developing an entrepreneurial leadership mindset to propose innovative solutions. Participants will engage in experiential learning, through hands-on labs, fieldtrips, and engaging with guest speakers working in areas across the food system, thereby gaining exposure to practical solutions for a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable food future. Ideal for students interested in food business or sustainability and eager to explore big challenges, test ideas, and learn by doing.

Program Faculty: Vikki Rodgers and David Blodgett

Powering our Planet: Energy Systems and Solutions

Explore the new and exciting technologies powering our world. From solar panels and wind turbines to biofuels and electric vehicles, you’ll discover how science and engineering shape the future of energy. Each day includes hands-on labs that bring real technology to life. Learn how innovative companies are transforming the way energy reaches our homes and roads.

Program Faculty: Kirstin Cooprider

Management, Marketing, and Teams Courses

Customer Acquisition and Persuasion

Customer acquisition and retention is the driver of revenue and hence the lifeblood of every company. Therefore, organizations continuously seek people with strong persuasion skills. College graduates often become sales professionals, business development executives, customer relationship managers, or end up in positions that complement these roles. This course will preview the skills necessary to succeed in a change where interpersonal relationships are more critical than ever.

Program Faculty: Nicholas Gallagher

Developing Your Inner Change Maker

Do you want to make change in your community—or beyond? In this interactive summer course for high school students, you’ll explore how to leverage your passions, strengths, and experiences to create meaningful impact. Through team activities, professional communication practice, and real-world discussions, you’ll develop your personal brand, build confidence, and learn how to turn your ideas into actionable next steps while connecting your strengths to the world around you.

Program Faculty: Emily Rosado-Solomon and Shakenna Williams

Sports Management

Big games and bigger business—step inside the world of sports beyond the field. In this immersive one-week summer course, students explore how professional sports leagues and college athletics actually operate, from big-money media deals to athlete negotiations and NIL opportunities. Students will dive into the business of sports through group exercises, class discussion, and real-world scenarios drawn from leagues like the NFL, NBA, MLB, and WNBA, as well as the NCAA.

Program Faculty: Leslie Garbarino

TeamCraft: Build, Solve, Succeed

Build the kind of team everyone wants to be part of in this energetic, challenge-driven course. Learn how high-performing teams actually work. Each day you will try a new tool, practice it in a fast-paced activity, and use it with your team as you tackle a meaningful challenge. You will build practical skills in trust, communication, decision making, and feedback while learning how to collaborate effectively under pressure. Throughout the course, your team will take small actions, see what happens, and adjust. By the end, you will deliver a Team Solution Showcase and a polished Team Playbook you can use in future classes, clubs, or sports teams.

Program Faculty: Jessica Burkland

The Art & Science of Negotiation: Skills for Life, College, and Career

Learn to get what you want without burning bridges. This experiential course puts you into hands-on negotiations from day one: you’ll practice, get feedback, and discover what actually works. Whether you’re navigating group project drama, making your case for more independence, or gearing up for your first job, you’ll leave with proven strategies and the confidence to use them. These are skills most people don’t develop until years into their careers; you’ll have them before freshman move-in. Fair warning: the adults in your life may regret letting you take this class.

Program Faculty: Amanda Weirup

The Psychology of Persuasive Marketing: Designing Campaigns That Matter

Ever wonder why certain ads, influencers, and social movements actually change what people think, feel, and do? In this immersive, hands-on course, you’ll uncover the psychology behind persuasive marketing and learn how brands use emotion, storytelling, and strategy to shape behavior. You won’t just analyze viral campaigns and social media trends; you’ll design your own ethically grounded marketing campaign around a real issue you care about, from sustainability to mental health to everyday habits. If you’re curious about psychology, business, media, or social impact, this course lets you turn creativity into influence and ideas into action.

Program Faculty: Krista Hill Cummings

When Things Don’t Go as Planned: Exploring Variability and Uncertainty in Real Life

Why do lines get so long? Why do some business systems feel chaotic even when everyone is trying their best? And how can small changes make things work way better? In this hands-on course, students explore variability and uncertainty by experiencing them—not just talking about them.

Instead of lectures, students learn by doing: building LEGO processes, running real-life assembly lines, playing the roles of customers and servers in queues, and even using candy to explore quality management. Students will see firsthand how randomness affects speed, flow, and performance—and why real-world systems don’t always behave the way we expect.

Daily reflection journals and a fun “word-of-the-day” activity help students make sense of what they experienced and unwind at the end of each day. We will get to know each other, learn with each other and from each other, in a fast-paced, professional, and stimulating way.

Program Faculty: Bojan Amovic

Communication, Culture, and Creative Expression Courses

Beginning Italian: Language, Culture, and Experience

Speak Italian. Experience Italy. Think Globally. Start speaking Italian from day one in this fun introductory course that blends language learning with culture, creativity, and real-world experience. Through interactive activities, music, food, and contemporary Italian media, students build confidence while exploring how Italians live, work, and communicate today. No prior language experience is required—just curiosity and a willingness to engage. Perfect for students eager to add a global skill, explore Italian culture, and stand out with a dynamic, experiential learning opportunity.

Program Faculty: Laura Brusetti McGinn

Horror, Uncertainty, Wonder

Explore the mysterious power of literature to provoke fear, curiosity, and wonder in this discussion-based summer course for rising juniors and seniors. You’ll examine horror, weird fiction, science fiction, and related genres to ask if the effect of uncertainty must always be fear, or if there might be a more positive spin to uncertainty. Through close reading, conversation, and reflective writing, you’ll investigate how our own perceptions influence meaning and how uncertainty can spark insight in addition to fear.

Program Faculty: Bryan Counter

Narrative Intelligence: Your Strategy Lab for High-Stakes Influence

In an economy where information is increasingly commoditized by artificial intelligence, the capacity for ethical, evidence-based persuasion remains the ultimate leadership differentiator. Grounded in the Narrative Intelligence Framework and backed by 25+ years of executive leadership in high-stakes financial services, this masterclass provides the analytical and psychological tools necessary to transform complex data into a persuasive vision that motivates others to act.

The Strategy Toolkit

• The "Thinking Partner" Protocol: Master expert prompting to utilize AI as a collaborative coach. You will learn to stress-test your arguments, decode human motivation, and refine strategic messaging for diverse audiences.
• Analytical Data Synthesis: Leverage tools like NotebookLM to practice deep research on complex topics - from case studies to market reports - extracting clear, evidence-based insights with speed and precision.
• Multimodal Content Creation: Learn to rapidly generate persuasive content across formats - including podcasts, executive briefings, and video scripts - to reinforce learning and scale your ideas.
• The Strategic Narrative Playbook: Build a portfolio of high-stakes assets, including a Founder’s Pitch, a Personal Brand Narrative, and a strategic story tailored for admissions or career pivots.

From this course you will gain a proprietary set of communication workflows designed to amplify your confidence and executive presence. While others focus on content consumption, you will master the high-stakes strategy of leading, connecting, and inspiring action.

Program Faculty: Scott Magnacca

Pitch Perfect: Master the Communication Behind Million-Dollar Ideas

Why do some pitches get funded while others flop? It’s not what you say—it’s how you say it. But how do you master that? This course decodes the psychology and linguistics of persuasion—revealing the secrets successful entrepreneurs use to win investors, customers, and teams. Through hands-on analysis and practice, you’ll craft and pitch your own business concept, mastering the same communication strategies Babson founders use to overcome objections, win rooms, and raise capital. Ready to pitch like a founder?

Program Faculty: Olga Birioukova

Politics in Panels: Capes, Comics, and Culture Wars

Comics have long served as battlegrounds for cultural and political conflict, from World War II to the present. Using superhero stories, graphic novels, and popular screen adaptations, students learn how visual narratives influence the way we understand politics and society. The course builds critical thinking and media literacy skills through discussion, comparison, and creative analysis, without requiring students to take political positions, and is grounded in the media students already know.

Program Faculty: Krystal-Gayle O’Neill

Storytelling, Video Production, and You

Learn to craft compelling stories and bring them to life through professional-quality video production. In this two-week course for rising juniors and seniors, you’ll practice interview techniques, narrative development, filming, and editing with Adobe Premiere. Week One activities will include discussing and practicing interview techniques, experimenting with video production techniques and conventions, developing a story vision, and planning for an interview shoot to be conducted over the weekend. Week Two activities will focus on transforming interview footage into an engaging story through editing in Adobe Premiere, test-screening with peer focus groups, and revising for impact. Students will produce a short film and premiere it at our watch party on the last day of class.

Program Faculty: Stephen McElroy

The Entrepreneur’s Edge: How to Speak Up and Find Your Voice

Build confidence, presence, and communication skills in this interactive speaking course for rising juniors and seniors. You’ll practice persuasive techniques, personal branding, body language, and structured delivery while giving multiple speeches throughout the week. Through guided feedback and real-world scenarios, you’ll learn how strong communicators influence teams, shape ideas, and lead with clarity.

Program Faculty: Keri Thompson and Sharon Sinnott

The History of Capitalism

• Why did Adam Smith like free markets but dislike both corporations and entrepreneurs?
• What’s the essential moral difference between a hunter-gatherer 5,000 years ago and an entrepreneur today?
• What’s the essential similarity between a trip hammer 200 years ago and artificial intelligence today?
• Does the history of the machine tool industry give us any insight into how artificial intelligence—machine intelligence—will likely change and not change the world?
• 2,500 years ago, why did the Buddha dislike that era’s fundamental financial innovation, the minting of gold into coins? Can the answer to that question help us make any useful inferences about the future of crypto?
• Economists say money has three uses—a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account. Could there be a fourth use that is still more important? And why don’t people notice it?
• 50 years ago, Babson considered itself a school of management. Now, it’s the world leader in entrepreneurship education. What does that story tell us about the general process of economic change?
• 100 years ago, capitalism’s dynamic change makers were financiers, 50 years ago they were managers, now entrepreneurs? What’s next?

This course provides a taste of the broad perspective a good education should give you on an ever-changing world.

Program Faculty: Jim Hoopes

Become UNSTOPPABLE: The AI Productivity Lab and Personal Brand Launchpad

Stop just surviving your workload and start mastering it. This immersive laboratory is designed for the future leader who wants to work smarter, not harder. We have synthesized 25 years of executive leadership and experience from global firms, including Fidelity Investments and TIAA, into a rigorous five-day roadmap for building your professional identity and presence.

You will learn to articulate your unique value with clinical precision and leverage AI as a "Professional Assistant" to dominate your academic prep, stand out in interviews, and secure your seat at the table.

The Tactical Toolkit:

• The "Super-Student" Efficiency Workflow: Use AI-driven tools like NotebookLM to transform dense study material into interactive guides, audio/video briefs, and Q&A prep tools to learn faster and maximize performance.
• Predictive Interview Simulator: Train AI models to act as admissions officers or hiring managers, providing iterative, bulletproof rehearsal for high-stakes environments.
• Professional Identity Optimization: Refine the technical mechanics of your LinkedIn profile to boost visibility and establish credibility before you even enter the room.
• Signature Pitch Development: Learn how to tell your story, showcase your strengths, and confidently pitch yourself for future opportunities. 

Walk away with a Signature Pitch Book and an AI-driven workflow that stays with you for life. Whether acing a final exam or interviewing for a dream job, you will be efficient, persuasive, and unstoppable.

Program Faculty: Scott Magnacca

Writing Our Cultures/Writing Ourselves: Pop Culture, Identity, and Memoir

Still reeling from the Stranger Things finale, finding any excuse to talk about the FIFA World Cup, or just wishing for another moment to talk about Tay's wedding? “Writing Our Cultures/Writing Ourselves” invites students to explore how contemporary media and everyday cultural moments shape who we are and how we tell our stories. Through discussion and writing, students will analyze pop culture and use it as a starting point for various kinds of personal writing. Some students may leave with drafts that could later be developed into college application essays, while others may explore writing for public audiences or simply enjoy the chance to write thoughtfully about themselves.

Program Faculty: Kristi Girdharry

The Business of Fashion and Influencer Brands

From TikTok creators to celebrity founders, many of today’s fastest-growing fashion brands are built online and powered by community. In this course, students explore how influencers and entrepreneurs turn followers into customers and ideas into brands. By the end of the week, teams will create their own creator-inspired fashion brand and pitch their launch strategy.

Program Faculty: Kim Jackson

Course Descriptions and Program Faculty are subject to change. In the event a course does not meet enrollment requirements, students will be offered alternative course options or a refund.