Jun. 22—Leaning About Business is one-week summer camp hosted by Lake Erie College in Painesville where students can learn the basics of how to run their own business.

LAB's curriculum puts sophomore through senior students into teams to develop their own simulated business. Students are tasked with creating mission statements, appointing themselves to positions like CEO and working together in a competitive setting against other teams. They do this through a computer-simulated program that aims to educate them on the techniques that have proven to succeed in the business world.

"We call it a miniature MBA program because students actually earn college credit points for their participation in this summer camp in partnership with Lake Erie College," said Marie Graf, executive director for Learning About Business. "We take them through how to run a business and get them going on Sunday with teaching leadership skills. We teach them about the executives who run a company and how to become them."

Every student who takes the course will earn three Lake Erie College credits upon completion.

The simulation for the last few years has tasked students with running their own drone company, competing against other entrepreneurial students in that process.

"This is our third year doing the simulation with the drone manufacturing company," Graf said. "Some of the stuff we have added to the program is triggering effects within the simulation like production line issues ... that challenge them to think."

Graf said that the competitive aspect of the simulation helps build the real-life stakes of the economy.

"Basically, what we are doing right now is we are doing a simulation of running drones," said Gabby Quintana, student participant at the LAB camp. "Right now, we are in the number one spot, and I'm so proud of my team and I for getting to this point. It was a lot of hard work, but it was well worth it."

One of the tasks students must complete is to engage in a mock press conference where they are tasked with answering questions by a set of assigned judges. This mock conference puts them in the hot seat where their company must address scenarios that can range from a response to sexual harassment lawsuits or a significant drop in their company's stock.

"The whole point of this camp is to prepare these kids for the business world," said LAB instructor Donald Wayne McLeod, creator and developer of Perceptionology. "We want to give these kids the best training we can provide in order to give them a leg up. Even something as simple as learning how to give a firm handshake is a skill that isn't always second nature."

Learn more about LAB online at Learning About Business — About LAB.