The BBEC facilitates venues for people throughout the community to interact directly with students in the schools.
Since 2003, the Higher Education Campus Visit program has brought 36,000 ninth and tenth graders into direct contact with students and staff at the five Berks County based colleges and universities. Similarly since 2013, the Students Interacting with Business program has engaged over 27,500 ninth graders with employers at business sites to learn directly about the requirements and opportunities for employment within the greater Berks County community.
The BBEC has taken a proactive lead the past six years to encourage schools to include an internship elective in the senior year curriculum. Six years ago, three school districts offered internship programs. In the 2021/2022 school year, 16 of the 18 Berks County school districts included the internship elective in their curricula.
The BBEC partners with the World Affairs Council of Greater Reading (WAC) to include students in the monthly luncheon presentations on important world topics. Since April 2019, the programs have been presented virtually due to the restrictions of Covid-19.