Business Schools a Must for Girls

An article from The War Cry High School Newspaper

February 7, 1972

By J.C. Dumas, age 17

Many young girls, as they reach the age of young womanhood, dream of being an important secretary for a large company, with good pay, coffee breaks, and all the other fringe benefits that go along with being some big executive’s “girl Friday.”

In Louisville, a girl’s dreams CAN come true, for it is home of two outstanding secretarial schools- Sullivan Business College and Spencerian College.

These two schools, both located on Fourth Street, have a combined total of 208 years experience in training girls in the secretarial field.

Both schools offer girls a wide range of secretarial instruction covering many fields, such as medicine, data processing, law, and technical work as well. Girls can also learn how to be a private secretary, as well as an executive secretary.

Sullivan, in addition to its School of Secretarial Science, as it is known, houses a School of Business Administration, offering instruction for coeds in computer programming, accounting, and business management. These courses greatly aid young men pursuing an executive role in the business world.

The Mr. Executive course, used at Spencerian, covers sixty hours of instruction in such essential executive qualities as appearance, effective speaking, leadership, salesmanship, etc. The course is an exclusive feature at Spencerian.

Programs for Achievement in Reading (PAR), a course designed to increase reading and study skills, is required for all Sullivan freshmen. The course is beneficial to all students at Sullivan, as the school reports that since instituting the course, the number of dropouts and failures has dropped greatly.

Both schools offer finishing courses for girls heading toward a business career. Spencerian gives all its students the Nancy Taylor charm course. The course includes professional training in such areas as diet control, skin care, hair styling, and other areas.

A charm course is offered at Sullivan, also, covering such important items as dress, interview techniques, and styling. For men, the school supplies a course in Junior Executive Development. The purpose of the course is to give the student poise and confidence necessary to make it in the business world.

With the coming of the computer age, secretaries must know how to do much more than answering phone s and taking dictation. As a result of this, Spencerian has installed IBM computers in their data processing classes, making it the only school in Kentucky possessing computers. This gives students a broader education as well as valuable experience in their future employment.

After hearing about all the educational features of Sullivan and Spencerian, one may get the idea that a dull atmosphere prevails at both schools. But this is definitely not the case.

Both schools have sororities and fraternities for the social set, and dances are held on campus on a semi-regular basis. Each year girls from both schools are invited to serve as dates at a gala dance for West Point Academy Senior Cadets who undergo training during the summer at Fort Knox. The affair serves as the high point for Sullivan and Spencerian girls.

In addition, Spencerian students are offered the opportunity to go on a three-week seminar trip to Europe. The trip enriches the cultural education of all who go.

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