Setting a Future Course

As one of the first students to take part in the Business Emerging Leaders (BEL) Program at the Wisconsin School of Business, Elton Rodriguez (BBA ’22) got more than a sneak peek at college. He found a way toward his future.

For three summers prior to what is now his freshman year at UW–Madison, Rodriguez and other high-achieving high school students came to WSB for the donor-funded program that helped them strengthen their academics and explore business careers. The program, created for underrepresented populations and first-generation college students, is designed to cultivate a diverse community of students who will become future industry leaders.

Rodriguez and 20 other BEL scholars arrived on campus in September 2018 as full-fledged Business Badgers, after meeting the necessary academic requirements to gain entrance to UW–Madison and earn a full-tuition scholarship.

“The community I built that first summer in the BEL Program has moved on to college and into my life,” says Rodriguez, a first-generation college student from Beloit, Wisconsin. “When I see someone from BEL, it’s not like I’m seeing someone I met in class, it’s like I’m seeing someone I know from back home.”

Beginning after their sophomore year in high school, BEL scholars work within the program’s four pillars —community development, personal growth, academic excellence, and career exploration. That includes ACT preparation, corporate site visits, and learning about business majors.

A business career wasn’t a specific goal for Rodriguez. He hadn’t even given college much thought until a favorite teacher announced a new business program at UW–Madison that offered the potential for a full scholarship.

“I always had an interest in business. We didn’t have a lot of extra money growing up, so I’d try to find ways to earn money,” Rodriguez says. “I’d go to rummage sales and find something I could resell elsewhere.”

That interest hadn’t formed into a plan yet for Rodriguez, who said he didn’t take school very seriously.

“Not because I wasn’t smart enough,” he says, “but because I just didn’t care. I didn’t have a goal.”

That changed with the BEL Program. After that first summer in the program, Rodriguez became a nearly straight-A student and was class president his junior and senior years.

The BEL Program sparked Rodriguez’s interest in investment banking, and the possibility of working with entrepreneurs or becoming one. It’s light years beyond what he imagined before those summers spent at UW–Madison.

“The people I met and the experiences I had made me realize I want to do more,” he says. “That’s a lot. That could shape the rest of my life.”