Businesses begin to sell innovations
Hands-on learning fosters creativity
January 16, 2016
When sophomore Kate Brinkman wanted to prepare herself for a possible future career in business, she looked for a class that would provide real-world experience.
“I wanted to learn about business because it’s such an important part of our society and I wanted to think about it as a potential career,” Brinkman said.
Brinkman said she serves in the production department for the charity bracelet business.
According to business innovations teacher Jacob Utities, students make many of the key business decisions, providing real life business experience.
“Students choose every single thing in the class,” Utities said. “You choose the product, you choose the price and you choose how you are going to sell the different products.”
Utities said the hands-on nature of the class sets business innovations apart from the average high school course.
“You learn by doing, so we don’t do textbooks,” Utities said. “I teach a bunch of concepts and then the students implement the concepts.”
Sophomore business innovations student Alex Balfour said the class provides students with skills they can use in the future.
“The class is different because it’s relevant to real life,” Balfour said. “We actually create products and order them and when we sell them we make a real profit.”
Balfour said she works in the finance department for the funny teacher calendar business.
Utities said he aims to guide students through the processes of developing their businesses.
According to freshman Mathan Aknin, the course teaches skills that foster further innovation.
“In this world, we see new innovations pop up all around us, and teaching people how to set up businesses and sell their products is a skill many of those inventors have,” Aknin said.
According to Utities, the businesses this year range from a funny teacher calendar, composed of pictures of teachers from their time in high school, to bonchos, a blanket poncho combination.
Utities said the different businesses will sell their wares at the kiosk outside the cafeteria through the end of the semester.
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