Students have a plethora of opportunities to network with alumni, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives through the Business Opportunity Program (BOP) Executive Speaker Series. Each semester, BOP hosts six to eight speakers who discuss their career journeys, life experiences, leadership lessons, how they overcame hurdles in life and career, and/or any advice they wish they received when they were students at Purdue University. The speaker series allows students to see role models in numerous career fields and to visualize themselves as a successful corporate executive in the future.
BOP students take courses that prepare them for entering corporate America. The course content promotes career development through an exploration of subjects including leadership, understanding corporate culture, and the impact of new technologies in the business world. BOP undergraduate courses are invaluable to first-year students' transition into the Daniels School and their internship searches. BOP's professional development, combined with the Daniels School's innovative curriculum, allows students to graduate with the tools needed to succeed in a global business environment.
BOP teaches student participants what it means to be a business professional through activities and events such as career coaching, peer-to-peer mentoring, community service, national conferences, and case competitions. Case competitions give students the opportunity to hone their skills at providing innovative solutions to challenging business problems. All BOP students participate in a case competition during their first-semester, and are strongly encouraged to participate in the numerous case competitions hosted within the Daniels School and those across campus.
After plenty of studying, hard work, and professional development, students enjoy themselves through a host of fun social activities! From football tailgates, intramural sports at the France A. Cordova Recreational Sports Center, movie outings, Greek parties, basketball games at the world-famous Mackey Arena, and trips to Walmart in the middle of the night for no reason, BOP students enjoy each other's company and the time spent together in West Lafayette. Students affectionately refer to other students in the program as their "BOP Family."
