More than just interns

Students from local universities get summer gig as CEO of Ill. firm

BOSTON. This summer, five students from local universities will get the ultimate hands-on business experience when they are given  the keys to run a multimillion dollar company.

And that’s not all. It will all be filmed as a potential TV reality series.

The concept, “CEO Intern,” was created by a recent Babson College graduate, Prescott Paulin. The students, hailing from Babson, Franklin. W. Olin College of Engineering and Harvard University, will run 300 Below, Inc., a commercial cryogenics processing company based in Decatur, Ill. Paulin’s father, Pete, is the company’s CEO but will relinquish that role for the summer.

Charles H. Brown, who just finished his sophomore year at Babson, is one of the students participating.

“This is a unique experience, and in terms of school, it will let me apply a lot of things I am learning in classroom,” said Brown, a 19-year-old from the Bronx.

“This is a positive reality TV show,” Paulin said. “The main challenge is trying to get the essence of these students trying to improve the business, but doing it in a fun way.”