{"id":976,"date":"2013-03-01T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T17:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/?p=976"},"modified":"2020-04-07T13:08:13","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T21:08:13","slug":"new-business-and-entrepreneurship-academic-program-launches-in-fall-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/01\/new-business-and-entrepreneurship-academic-program-launches-in-fall-13\/","title":{"rendered":"New Business and Entrepreneurship Academic Program Launches in Fall \u201913"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly and reprinted in Harker News Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entrepreneurship is nothing new to Harker students and now\nthe school will draw together existing activities and new pieces to launch an\nacademic Business and Entrepreneurial Program (BEP) in the fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current elements, including the business club and its DECA\nparticipation, and Harker\u2019s TEDx conferences will be laced together with new\nelements to make a complete program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are ready to take our current elements of business and entrepreneurial\nopportunities for our students to the programmatic level,\u201d said Chris Nikoloff,\nhead of school. \u201cThe current elements of DECA, TEDx, career panels and other\nspecial opportunities will be assembled into a comprehensive program that will\ngive students direct business and entrepreneurial training, experience and\nopportunities appropriate to the high school level. We want to leverage our\nlocation and contacts in Silicon Valley to create unique learning opportunities\nand experiences for students interested in these areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DECA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upper school\u2019s Harker Business Club (HBC) participates\neach year in DECA events, and that effort will be rolled into the program. A\nnew not-for-credit DECA class is being added that will teach future leaders and\nentrepreneurs ethics, leadership skills and expertise in business- related\nfields, and students will prepare business plans for DECA competitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michaela Kastelman, grade 12, wound up her term as DECA\nSilicon Valley president in March and Sophia Luo, grade 9, ascended to a new\nrole at DECA Silicon Valley as secretary and treasurer for the next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am very excited that Harker is starting a business and\nentrepreneurship program!\u201d said Kastelman. \u201cMany students are very interested\nin learning about business and entrepreneurship and I think that it will be a\ngreat opportunity for Harker students to gain pre-professional education and\nexperience. Several current and past Harker students have already created and\ndeveloped their own startups and I think that a business and entrepreneurship\nprogram will further support Harker students\u2019 entrepreneurial spirit and\ninterest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DECA annual state competition was in March and more than\n20 students qualified for and are attending the international conference in\nApril.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DECA, which used to stand for Distributive Education Clubs\nof America, but is now the actual name of the program, is an international\nassociation of high school and college students, and teachers of marketing,\nmanagement and entrepreneurship. The group works to prepare leaders and\nentrepreneurs for careers in business, finance, hospitality and marketing.\nHarker has had a business club for several years and 77 members attended the\nSilicon Valley Career Development Conference hosted by the California association\nof DECA in San Jose in January. Harker students won 14 trophies and several\nmedals, with Harker teams and individuals earning eight top- three finishes.\nNikoloff was one of the many judges at the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough my involvement in HBC and DECA, I\u2019ve learned key\nlife and business skills that I will carry with me through college and life,\u201d\nsaid Kastelman. \u201cI\u2019ve particularly grown through my officer positions, which\nhave helped me develop as a leader and team member. From arranging conferences\nfor 800 people to helping other schools to start and develop their own DECA\nchapters, I\u2019ve learned how to inspire a shared vision and foster community,\nwhich I think will be important skills for college and my future career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also developed my critical thinking, public thinking\nand time management skills through DECA and HBC, which will greatly benefit me\nduring college,\u201d continued Kastelman. \u201cThis program could help students\ndiscover their interest in business and entrepreneurship and \u2026 I think that\n(participating) Harker students will get a jump start into entering the Silicon\nValley startup community as they will be able to gain essential business\nrelated skills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club will now be an adjunct to the overall program. \u201cWe\nwill be offering a DECA class, formerly only a club activity, as an extra\nperiod option for the upper school students,\u201d said Jennifer Gargano, assistant\nhead of school for academic affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TEDx<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost 200 high school students came to Harker in October\n2011 for the first-ever independently organized TEDxHarkerSchool event,\nheadlined by keynote speaker Guy Kawasaki, chief evangelist at Apple in the\n\u201980s. The event featured five top entrepreneurs, each offering unique\nperspectives and advice to the young audience. The TEDx committee is in full\nswing planning the next TEDx conference at Harker for April 27. Speakers are\nstill being lined up, but the group had, by March 1, contacted its first round\nof potential speakers and outlined a comprehensive campaign to attract students\nfrom other high schools and colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marketing director for this year\u2019s TEDx, Glenn Reddy, grade\n10, noted, \u201cAs a student interested in going into business later in life, I am\nvery excited about the new Business and Entrepreneurial Program. In the past,\nbusiness-oriented students have had few course options in their field, but now\nthat will change. Being a part of a larger program will help us expand the\nTEDxHarkerSchool event to involve more students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initiating the BEP in the fall of 2013 is contingent upon\nfinding the right person to chair the new department, said Nikoloff, and he is\nconsulting with some of the many entrepreneurs in the Harker community to\nidentify candidates.\n\n\n\nMeanwhile, Kastelman is excited \u2013 and maybe a\nbit jealous \u2013 that the program is in the works. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to see how the\nprogram develops!\u201d she said. \u201cI really wish that this program had existed when\nI was a freshman; I would have definitely chosen to participate in it, and I\nthink this will help Harker students to become even more well-rounded and\namazing. The skills that will be taught and learned through the BEP could be\napplied to any of the other extracurricular activities that Harker offers. For\nexample, a highly involved theater student could participate in the program and\nlearn to start his or her own theater company. I\u2019m really excited to hear that\nHarker is expanding its education\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly and reprinted in Harker News Online. Entrepreneurship is nothing new to Harker students and now the school will draw together existing activities and new pieces to launch an academic Business and Entrepreneurial Program (BEP) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-and-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":977,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}