(Public Domain Pictures)

Next year, junior and senior English students will have the opportunity to enroll in a new semester-long business class taught by Ms. Reifeis. The class will be student-driven with a focus on collaboration, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving. 

The inspiration for this course began with a program called Wildfire Education run by Doris Korda (a former Academy math teacher) at Hawken School in Cleveland. After attending and thoroughly enjoying the class, Ms. Reifeis decided that she would like to look into starting a similar program within our English department. Instead of the traditional process that most English students go through of simply reading a book and then writing a follow-up paper, she decided that this class would propose different writing opportunities for students that will present more of a “real-world experience.”

Each quarter, three different business representatives will visit the class and present a problem or task for the students to work on. In the few classes following these presentations, students will work in small groups as they look for ways to tackle the presented situations. Next, the same representatives will visit and listen to the students’ ideas and proposals. After working with six different businesses throughout the semester, students will then be tasked with designing a product or business of their own. 

There are already several businesses interested in participating with the class: Sweet Carrot, an American restaurant with three Columbus locations, Gahanna Residents in Need, a local food pantry, a jewelry store known as ShopTheSmithery. 

Ms. Reifeis’ course will offer an exclusive chance for juniors and seniors to learn the fundamentals of business through effective collaboration, innovative problem solving, research, and critical thinking.