New to the 2024-25 school year, Entrepreneurship is being offered as a unique course for students who aspire to start and grow a business.
“It’s a new class, and I thought it would be really cool to start a business and build a product in school.” Evan Klein, senior, said.
Teaching the course is Ken Schoen, Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher, and just like the students taking the class, this isn’t something that’s been experienced before.
“The class is very unique,” Schoen said. “We have no books, no tests, and we have no desks. If you go in there (the new classroom), you will see that it’s a professional setting.”
To add to the uniqueness of the course, it offers a mentorship system where students will work alongside assigned district mentors each week.
“In October, there’s going to be a district-wide mentor match day. It kind of works like speed dating.” Schoen described.
During the mentor match day, students will sit for a few hours, giving the district mentors the opportunity to come in and talk to the different groups of students. At that point, the groups will have to give their top three mentors they want to be paired with, and mentors, similarly, will have to choose their top three groups they wish to work with. After that, students will be meeting once a week with their mentors with special classroom equipment.
“We have an office for the meetings, and students are already equipped with 42-inch TVs, access to a glow forge, 3D printers, and nice, comfy chairs,” Schoen said.
According to Uncharted Learning’s website, the INCubatoredu curriculum is meant to be different as opposed to other courses as there are no regular assessments, for example.
“It’s a very unique class.” Austin Batis, senior, said. “It changes our perspective on the business world, and it lets us make use of our creativity while also taking into consideration what’s important for starting a business.”
Schoen, along with other entrepreneurship teachers within the district, shadowed the course in action at Naperville Central High School last year in order to prepare for teaching the course this year.
“I think the class is great, and I can already tell it’s going to be a really fun and unique experience.” Vince Trevino, senior, said. “Mr. Schoen is a great teacher, and he’s one of my favorite parts of the class, as well as being able to present in class.”
The class is a year-long course, and Schoen is already looking forward to what’s next for the future of the entrepreneurship course path at school.
“Eventually, we’ll have a second-level class called Accelerator,” Schoen said.
According to Uncharted Learning’s website, the ACCELeratoredu curriculum “provides students the opportunity to launch and gain traction for their business.”
