ALL POSTS BY: Michael Burcham

As the Faculty Director for Accelerator, Vanderbilt’s Summer Business Institute at the Owen Graduate School of Management, I am excited to share my thoughts about the dynamics of this amazing program. For 30 straight days some of our top collegiate minds will be immersed in real-world consulting roles for companies, helping to solve issues in marketing, logistics, finance, operations, and branding. Within a competitive team structure, these students will be challenged to deliver the best solutions possible for our corporate partners. And in doing so, they will truly do more than they ever imagined!

Our program will begin on Friday, June 6th and will run through Thursday, July 3rd.  This year, there were over 350 applicants for the program.  80 students were selected to make up the Accelerator 2008 team.   These young men and women come from all over the U.S. and represent the best and brightest.

Our partner corporations this year include:

• Griffin Technology www.griffintechnology.com
• Bridgestone www.bridgestone-firestone.com
• American Airlines www.aa.com
• Gresham Smith & Partners www.gspnet.com
• Humana www.humana.com
• Yum! Brands, Inc. www.yum.com
• William Morris Agency www.wma.com
• Livescribe www.livescribe.com
• Caterpillar Financial www.finance.cat.com

For more details about Accelerator, see our micro site at www.owen.vanderbilt.edu/accelerator