Business & Professional Careers Class Earns Profits for Scholarships, Charity

December 3, 2015

Nine teams from two sections of OBU’s Business and Professional Careers class recently used their entrepreneurial and business knowledge to raise money for scholarships and non-profits. The students sold OBU stadium blankets, Bison head lapel pins, OBU hanging air fresheners, OBU decals, and five different T-shirts, generating a total of $10,369.32 in revenue.

The students earned a profit of $5,452.66, with half of that total going toward the College of Business Scholarship fund and the other half distributed to charities. Each team chose its own charities to support. This year, the students made donations to roughly 30 charities, including the Hope House, Shawnee Rescue Mission, Salvation Army of Shawnee, Project Safe, Manna Ministries, Charity Water, St Jude Children's Hospital and Next Generation.

The teams, consisting of a total of 42 students, created their business plan. They were awarded up to $500 per team, and they then designed, sourced, and sold their products. The businesses were then shut down and the profits distributed. All of this was completed since the beginning of the semester.

This project began in fall 2006. Students have raised $26,985.29 to date, with half of the profits going to charities.

The original investors of the seed money included Joseph Atkinson of North Star Companies, LLC, in Midwest City, and Shelley L. Sanders, CFA, of Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC, in Oklahoma City.