Contact: Cristina Arana,
(818) 677-2130
carana@exec.csun.edu

Students Introduced to the World of Business by Fictitiously Buying Out Tortilla Company

About 50 high school students are strategically planning a corporate take over of the Mission Foods Corporation this summer. The students, from public and private high schools throughout Los Angeles, are part of the highly competitive summer program Accounting Career Awareness Program (ACAP) scheduled to take place at Cal State Northridge Aug. 2-7.

After the students visit the tortilla company, the program requires the students to create a fictitious buy out of the company and present, "An Offer You Can't Refuse," to a panel that will act as company board members and award the team that is most convincing.

The program began in 1980 as a means to introduce under-represented minorities to accounting and business related areas. The program, held in the past at the University of Southern California, has moved to CSUN for the first time this year.

It is designed to introduce students to basic accounting and business skills including its terminology, business concepts, risk taking, creating balance sheets and business etiquette.

Coordinators say that the program attracts the most gifted students in the 9th through 11th grades and is careful to make sure they are mentored by young minority professionals that act as counselors while they stay in CSUN's dorms.

"We tend to focus on highly qualified students that will go on to become doctors and lawyers," said program coordinator Jim Macklin. "Its amazing how much the students absorb. They become really involved and even pick up on the business lingo by the end of the week."

For more information, call Macklin at (818) 445-3866 or (626) 445-3866.