In-School Community Programs

Bringing the Business Week Program into high schools lets us take a holistic, community-oriented approach to our program. Whereas our summer programs are more like “camp”, bringing people together from all over the state, our In-School Programs are strengthening entire communities.

Each In-School program involves about 30 community leaders and business volunteers for an entire week. They work side by side with educators to organize and deliver the Business Week Program. An additional 40-70 volunteer judges act as “Investors” for the Trade Show and Stockholder presentations. This creates a more direct link between business and education – connecting local industry with the community’s future workforce. The In-School format also gives local business people the opportunity to volunteer in their own community and give back to the youth of that community. By forming a strong partnership between the educators, the local business community and Business Week staff, we are able to build broad, community-based support for the program in each community that hosts it.

The In-School program format is very similar to the summer program except that it runs for just the school day. Each student “Company” (10-15 students) is guided by a volunteer from the local business community as they learn about running a business, explore career options, make tough ethical and financial decisions, and compete for investors. Students attend the program free of cost which enables many to participate who might not otherwise be able to. This program has become a staple for schools like Aberdeen High School, who made Business Week a graduation requirement for all students.