writing: Nick Woolard
design: Wyatt Downey
permission to print: Luke Border
The business program at the school is a great way for students to get a grasp on the basics and complexities of business principles.
The business program has many different classes that differ in what a student may learn. While all of them are centered on business, they may cover different subtopics.
“The school offers Business Foundations, Business Tech, Personal Finance, Entrepreneurship and Marketing,” senior DECA president Luke Border said.
One of the most popular business classes offered at the school is Marketing. This class, which is offered to just juniors and seniors, gives students an opportunity to see what business in the real world is like.
“When you join the marketing class as junior or senior, you get to not only participate in DECA but also work in and run operations for the school store,” Border said.
DECA, which is the Distributive Economic Clubs of America, is an organization that aims to prepare students for future business careers, such as marketing, hospitality, and finance, according to DECA.
“DECA competitions test us in many different aspects of the business world,” business member Vyom Bhatt said.
The first type of competition that a DECA member will attend are district competitions, which are held at Easton Mall. These competitions will entail two different events: role-plays, and written events, according to Junior Store Manager Sierra Toot.
“In the role-plays, you are given a different scenario for which you are supposed to come up with solutions and try to pitch those ideas to the business owners/managers,” Bhatt said.
On the other hand, the written events are prepared before the main competition, during class time or other free time.
“Written events are prepared before competition,” Toot said. “Written event competitors have 10-15 minutes to give the judge a presentation and a written paper. Typically the top three to five placers move onto the next level of competition (states and nationals).” At the high school, there have been many students who have made it to nationals, and this year, they are planning to have even more go. While the team/school as a whole has already punched a ticket, it is still waiting for individual results to see who will go.
“My favorite memory so far has definitely been our trip to Atlanta for ICDC (International Career Development Conference) last spring, and hopefully our trip to Orlando this year if we qualify,” Border said.
While DECA is a large part of the business program at the school, another important aspect of the business program is helping run the school store.
“Our school has a school store called Fort Orange, which is run my members of the DECA chapter,” Bhatt said. “We run the school store to let the members gain real life experience about running a small business, and it helps to promote school spirit!”
The Fort, which is located in the café, is open every day, during every lunch period, where students are able to stop in and purchase anything. As well as this, the Fort is occasionally open for after school events, such as basketball games.
The Fort offers a variety of items for purchase, such as coffee, energy drinks, candy, chips, hats, stickers, clothing, and they also take custom clothing design orders, according to Bhatt.
Marketing program students also have lots of plans for new ways to appeal to customers. This ranges from new items to sell in the store, but also ideas for how to renovate the store itself.
“We want to make Fort Orange a modern, timeless and open space that customers enjoy coming into and that students enjoy working at,” Toot said. “We also hope to continue to grow Fort Orange in as many ways as possible by offering new products and serving our customers to the best of our ability.”
Workers at the Fort are currently creating a proposal to the Olentangy School Board, to see if they can turn their renovation dreams into a reality, according to Toot.
“We think that a renovation would feed our ultimate goals of maximizing revenue and having fun while learning,” Toot said.
