Marshall University’s School of Art and Design is teaming up with Career Services and Tamarack Artisan Foundation for Be Your Own Boss 9-11 a.m. Friday at the Visual Arts Center.

“This is a mini-conference with a panel of alumni entrepreneurs as its main focus and break out mentoring sessions are the second important part,” said Sandra Reed, director of School of Art and Design.

Debby Stoler, assistant director of development and outreach, said the college wants to give an opportunity for people to see where entrepreneurs started.

“The college wanted to offer them an opportunity to kind of network with some local or regional people who are actually entrepreneurs and can get some insight from them on how they got where they are today and how they got started,” Stoler said.

Reed said the purpose of Be Your Own Boss is to show students some situations they can encounter when they graduate.

“This is the first of its type,” Reed said. “We envisioned it to be a counterpart to one that will be planned in the fall. So this is Be Your Own Boss and the one for the fall is envisioned around the idea of finding a great boss.”

Be Your Own Boss is open to students and the community.

Sara Ryan can be contacted at [email protected].