By Staff Writer: Eliza Bengala

On Friday, Nov.  a group of promising Howell High Schools students were able to spend a day at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business through a program called MREACH. (Michigan Ross School of Business Enriching Academics in Collaboration with High schools)

“It’s a business program with the intent to bring underrepresented students to U of M (University of Michigan.)” says Howell High School teacher and MREACH advisor, Mr. Greg Miller.

Students involved in MREACH go to U of M’s Ann Arbor campus five to six times a year.  There, students receive valuable knowledge in business, accounting, economics, marketing, finance, investing, entrepreneurship, and business management through the opportunity of role-play, simulations, interacting with successful entrepreneurs, and lectures.

Business knowledge geared towards the high school level isn’t the only thing that students get out of the program.  A major goal of MREACH is to help students apply and get accepted into U of M’s business college.

“In senior year, students receive help filling out their applications with other U of M students.  When they turn them in, they become one in a hundred instead of a few thousand,” says Mr. Greg Miller.  Mr. Miller teaches business classes at Howell High.

Being one in only a few hundred will greatly increase a student’s chance of being accepted into U of M. “This is how we get U of M to know our students and get our students into good universities,” he adds.

While the deadline for sophomores, juniors and seniors to join MREACH has ended, HHS freshmen will be actively recruited until the end of January.

“They [MREACH and U of M] try to get students in as freshman,” Mr. Miller says.

And students are excited about the opportunities they receive through being part of MREACH.

“We finally get to go to U of M!” a group of them told me as they walked out of the school to the busses.