Learning Business In and Out of the Classroom

By Karen Lubieniecki, STAFF WRITER



"People don't understand how life-changing the program can be."



If there is one reason to pay attention to the benefits of business-oriented training, perhaps this statement from Northeast High School student Eric Vooys, speaking about his Academy of Finance experience, is it.

Providing life-changing experiences is what programs in Anne Arundel and Howard County public schools are trying to do by offering tomorrow's potential business leaders and entrepreneurs opportunities to explore a possible future in business. For businesses in these communities who reach out to the schools and their students, the rewards are twofold: an opportunity to give back and an opportunity to identify and mold their future workforce.

Both county school systems have a variety of programs. Though each is structured slightly differently, both share some common elements: close mentoring, courses and training designed to address not only academics, but also the personal and business skills needed to succeed in the business world.

Several programs include high school courses that are accepted by select colleges as fulfillment of certain college requirements. They also offer students the opportunity to take career-related courses on college campuses, thereby gaining additional post-secondary school credits.

Most importantly, they offer the students, through internships and other programs with local business leaders, the opportunity to interact with potential employers and role models. At least one program's students have experienced the perils and rewards of entrepreneurial endeavors by creating a business.

Two national organizations with local chapters, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and DECA (Delta Epsilon Chi), provide additional opportunities to experience business's competitive nature and hone entrepreneurial and leadership skills. Taken together, all these efforts provide motivated students with a leg up not only into business, but into their future, as well.



The Business of Learning

The Howard County Public School System has seven career clusters designed to help students explore specific broad careers, including businesses and entrepreneurship. These clusters revolve around several academies, which provide a more intense and focused experience for the students.

Under the Business and Entrepreneurship Cluster, for example, there is an Accounting Academy, the Business Management Academy, the Marketing Academy and the Academy of Finance. The accounting and business management academies operate within each of Howard County's 12 high schools (if there is sufficient enrollment). Courses for the Academy of Finance (AOF) are held at the Applications and Research Lab (ARL) off Route 108 in Ellicott City and are available system-wide to students. Students are bused from their respective high schools to the ARL for their AOF coursework.

Anne Arundel public school programs are structured slightly differently. Anne Arundel has a work-based learning program at each of its 12 high schools, during which students are at a work site learning about careers and enhancing their skills for either post-secondary education or direct entry into the workforce. It also includes two Centers of Applied Technology, which offer training in fields ranging from Automotive Collision Repair to Computer Repair Technology to Culinary Arts.

Like Howard, Anne Arundel County has created a number of academies to provide a more rigorous program for students planning to go not only into business, but likely into postsecondary education. However, all are school specific and open only to students who happen to live in that school's enrollment district. The Academy of Information Technology (AOIT) is offered at Chesapeake and Arundel high schools; The Academy of Law and Public Service is only at Annapolis and Meade high schools. Anne Arundel's Academy of Finance (AOF) is offered only at Northeast High School.



Entrepreneurs in Training

Both the Anne Arundel and Howard County Academies of Finance are affiliated with the National Academy Foundation (NAF), as are the six Academies of Finance in Prince George's and Montgomery counties and the four in Baltimore City.

For the approximately 40-50 students in Howard County and 40 in Anne Arundel who are currently part of the Academy of Finance experience, the rigorous courses and introduction to the business world are both eye-opening and extremely rewarding. In addition to accounting, economics, banking and credit, world financial and financial planning courses, students in the program are required to take at least one class at a local college, either Howard Community College or Anne Arundel Community College, depending on their county.

Students are prepared for the business world in other ways. Both programs take them out for a business meal - specifically designed to teach them the rules of etiquette when dining out. Al Kohlhafer's students at Northeast High School have taken their entrepreneurial training one step further. They created a T-shirt business that sells "The Dena T" (for Pasadena) that has helped fund some of their field trips and the group's monthly dinner - and provided practical experience since it involved working with local companies in the T-shirt's production.



Internships Benefit Students and Businesses

Students also learn critical presentation skills which turn into real-world experiences, as student Courtney Stitt of Northeast High School recently found out during a Baltimore Washington Chamber Power Breakfast where she had to promote the AOF in one-and-a-half minutes to other businesspeople at her breakfast table in a traditional round-robin. "It was like 'speed dating' but for business," she said.

Students' presentation skills also help them with potential internships. These paid positions are a key part of the AOF program. Businesses that participate are enthused about the students they encounter. Stephen Lee, CEO of Wagener and Lee in Columbia, called them "an asset to the business and a joy to be around."

John Mill, treasurer of Ascend One in Columbia noted, "These students are energetic, bright, the best of the best who are ... really interested in their future."

Sharrie Wade, president of Clark & Anderson P.A., in Glen Burnie, has had Academy of Finance interns since 1999. One of them, Lindsey Behrens, worked with the firm through college, and now, eight years after graduating and getting a master's degree, is an accountant and valued employee.

Locating those internships is one of the greatest challenges for the programs' administrators. Both Al Kohlhafer at Anne Arundel's Northeast High and Richard Weisenhoff in Howard County report increasing problems finding good positions. A slowing economy is decreasing the number of paid internships, and the area's many defense-related businesses, which used to be major sources of jobs, have security clearance regulations that have significantly impacted their ability to offer internships.

Fortunately, other companies continue to reach out to the students - potentially their future employees - through their work on the advisory boards and programs such as "Groundhog Days," held recently for about 25 students at Ascend One.



Charting Their Course

Students' exposure to business through formal school programs is only one part of the equation. Extracurricular activities offer the passionate student additional outlets that can hone business, leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

Both Anne Arundel and Howard counties have a number of active chapters of DECA and FBLA. Presidents of both state chapters are from Howard County high schools: Leo Carelle Garcia, president of DECA, is a student at Reservoir High School; and Elizabeth Ding, president of FBLA, is at River Hill High School.

Both organizations provide leadership training and competitions designed to hone students' understanding of and interest in all facets of the business world, and both are supported by businesses locally and nationally. While both include entrepreneurship in their competitions, DECA's focus is more directed to that arena. This March, for example, the Maryland DECA Chapter's state competition will have a number of team and individual competitive events specifically dedicated to entrepreneurship, including one where team members have to not only demonstrate that they understand entrepreneurship, but can promote it to others.

Other entrepreneurial events involve teams developing and presenting detailed proposals for new businesses, including

financing and marketing for either an independent or franchise business. Winners of these highly competitive and arduous events go on to compete at the national level.

For Leo Carelle Garcia, the rewards of his involvement in both the AOF and especially his extracurricular activity have been clear, and also life-changing. In addition to his election as 2007-2008 Maryland state president last year, he came in second in two of the state's competitive events. Where he once wanted to be a doctor, exposure to the AOF and DECA have taken his life in a different direction.

He has not only found a passion - accounting - and learned invaluable business and personal skills, but he noted, "I've met people I wouldn't normally be meeting." When he goes off to college next year at Johnson Wales University in Charlotte, N.C., that passion will go with him. But with dedicated professionals like Kohlhafer and Weisenhoff, and committed businesses, a new cadre of young people will have the opportunities he did to explore the world of both business and entrepreneurship, and have their lives changed, too.





Educational Resources

American Society for

Engineering Education

1818 N Street, N.W., Suite 600

Washington, D.C. 20036-2479

Tel: 202-331-3500

Fax: 202-265-8504

www.asee-ent.org



Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation

2660 Riva Road, Suite 200

Annapolis, MD 21401

Tel: 410-222-7410

Fax: 410-222-7415

www.aaedc.org



The Association for Entrepreneurial

Science Inc. (AES)

1211 Parklawn Drive

Rockville, MD 20852

Tel: 301-881-3300, x123

www.afbr-bri.com



Chesapeake Entrepreneur Center

Chestertown, MD

Tel: 410-810-8892



Entrepreneurial Development

Allegany County Econ. Dev.

701 Kelly Road

Cumberland, MD 21502

Tel: 301-777-5967

www.alleganyworks.org



Entrepreneurs Exchange

550M Ritchie Highway, #271

Severna Park, MD 21146

Tel: 410-647-8167

Fax: 410-544-4640

www.entrepreneursexchange.org



Greater Baltimore SCORE

Counselors to America's Small Business

The City Crescent Buiding

6th Floor: 10 S. Howard Street

Baltimore, MD 21201

Tel: 40-962-2233

www.scorebaltimore.org



Howard County Economic

Development Authority

6751 Columbia Gateway Drive, Suite 500

Columbia, MD 21046

Tel: 410-313-6500

Fax: 410-313-6525

www.hceda.org



IRS Online Programs

www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=97726,00.html



MD Business Incubation Association

401 Rosemont Avenue

Frederick, MD 21701

Tel: 301-694-2999



MD Dept. of Business &

Economic Development

217 East Redwood Street

Baltimore, MD 21202

Tel: 410-767-6300

www.choosemaryland.org



The Maryland Institute for

Workforce Excellence

4725 Dorsey Hall Drive, Suite A-100

Ellicott City, MD 21042

Tel: 800-332-0916

Fax: 888-612-4234

www.mietp.org



Maryland Small Business

Development Center

Towson University

7801 York Road, Suite 160

Towson, MD 21252-0001

Tel: 410-704-5001

Toll Free: 877-421-0830

Fax: 410-704-5009

www.towson.edu/sbdc/index.asp



Prince George's County Economic Development Corporation

1100 Mercantile Lane

Largo, MD 20774

Tel: 301-583-4650

www.pgcedc.com



SBDC MD Small Business Development Center College of Southern MD

8730 Mitchell Road

La Plata, MD 20646

Tel: 301-934-7583

www.sbdchelp.com



Small Business Administration

City Crescent Building, 6th Floor

10 South Howard Street

Baltimore, MD 21201

Tel: 410-962-6195

www.sba.gov/local rsources/district/md/index.html



Small Business Information Center

Cecil County Public Library, Elkton Central

301 Newark Avenue

Elkton, MD 21921

Tel: 410-996-5600, x128

www.ebranch.cecil.lib.md.us/SmallBusinessInformationCenter.htm



Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore Inc.

1118 Light Street, Suite 101

Baltimore, MD 21230

Tel: 410-727-4921

Fax: 410-727-4989

www.webinc.org/