GUILDERLAND — It’s not your grandmother’s business program where girls, seated in straight rows, dutifully learned shorthand and typing so they could become secretaries.

Business students at Guilderland High School, both males and females, work collaboratively on team projects with real-world applications, and sometimes on internships in community enterprises. They often use cutting-edge technology and can earn college credit for many courses.

“All my friends in high school were broke,” Nate Weinberg, a Guilderland alumnus, told the school board on Nov. 19 during a presentation on the program. “They didn’t know how to budget,” Weinberg said of his friends, but he did; it was a skill he learned in a business class.

After graduating from Guilderland four years ago, Weinberg started his own business as a freshman in college. He attributed his success to “these guys,” Weinberg said as he gestured to his high school business teachers.

Lori Hershenhart, the instructional administrator for business, told the school board that the department fosters “21st-Century learning,” teaching both life and career skills and stressing two important themes: global awareness and financial literacy. (Other themes, listed in the department’s 72-page report, for 21st-Century learning include civic, health, and environmental literacy.)

“Parents don’t know that these are academic classes that are challenging,” said board member Colleen O’Connell at the close of the presentation.

A survey of parents conducted by the business department showed that only 36 percent were “aware of the depth and breadth of business offerings in Guilderland High School,” the report said.

The course most parents wanted their child to take was the Career Exploration Internship Program, which they said would give them a taste of “real world” work experience, the survey showed.

Other courses recommended by parents included Entrepreneurship and Management followed closely by Economics and Personal Finance, which, the report said, “aligned with parents’ unanimous response that it would be beneficial for their child to take a course in financial literacy.”

With three teachers — Sarah Hubbard, Joan McGrath, and Kate Newbegin — the department offers 10 half-year and five full-year courses, and students can earn up to 13 college credits. The report points out that, while the business teachers represent just 2 percent of teachers in the high school, they impact about a quarter of the students each year.

Hubbard, who said she is “proud to be a business educator,” described diverse programs meeting the needs of a wide array of students. A pie chart showed a little over half of the Guilderland business students from 2008 to 2013 earned Advanced Regents diplomas, just under half earned Regents diplomas, and the remaining few students earned local or IEP (Individualized Education Program) diplomas typically for special-education students.

Students from different grades are often grouped in a single business class where they can learn from each other. “They really discover themselves and know what they’re good at and not,” said Newbegin.

Technology is integrated in all classes, said Hubbard, adding, “Even my accounting class is taught in a computer lab.”

She also said “real-life” skills are taught, “what students will really use in their future.”

Career and college readiness

The department surveyed local business owners on the skills and qualities they value in young job applicants. Seven skills, listed in descending order of importance, received the highest responses: personal responsibility, time management, oral and written communication, critical thinking and problem solving, teamwork, following directions, and ethical behavior.

The courses businesses most valued as preparation for employees were career internships at 100 percent, followed by computer applications at 93 percent. When citing qualities lacking in people entering the workforce, employers most frequently described the inability to communicate effectively. “Learn to call someone or talk to them face to face,” the report quoted one employer. “Stop it with only emailing or texting.”

Guilderland partners with Hudson Valley Community College — students pay $50 per credit as opposed to $426 at the college — for a 4-credit course in accounting and a 3-credit course in Microsoft Office, and with Schenectady County Community College, which is free, for a 3-credit course in marketing and another 3-credit course in corporate law.

McGrath stressed the importance of community-school partnerships. This has included guest speakers ranging from a State Trooper talking about solving computer crimes to an entrepreneur who owns an airline in Alaska.

Students also “job shadow,” she said, visiting work places like the Beverwyck Senior Living Community and the Wilson Elser Law Firm. At the University at Albany’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy, students have learned about the skills they would need to launch a business.

Guilderland students have also participated in Junior Achievement Programs, Mock Trial, and the Ithaca College Investment Competition. And, they have joined an Advisors for Investment Club. The trial team, advised by local lawyers, had 45 members this year and the investment club, started last year, is student driven and focuses on learning financial and investing skills.

Internships, said McGrath, are “one of the best things we do in our department.” The one-semester electives are student driven, she said as they explore careers, including engineering, medicine, and criminal justice. Interns work five hours a week at their job sites for a total of 55 hours and then additionally have 27 hours of classroom instruction where they learn such skills as interviewing techniques, writing résumés and cover letters, and about job safety.

McGrath said there is a little bit of a “disconnect” with the internships, which students value but many fewer are offered than at other Suburban Council schools. The report shows that internships are also highly valued by parents and employers. Guilderland has just one or two sections a year, capped at 16 students each, said McGrath, adding, “It used to be bigger.”

The department’s report said that 72 percent of students surveyed “agreed that their business courses had influenced their future career options and helped them make better, more informed decisions.”

Advocates and goals

Newbegin introduced to the school board two students, an alumnus, and a local businessman who were all enthusiastic about Guilderland’s program.

Student Donna Poskanzer said her marketing course was “exactly what I want to do in college.”

She also said of a business course, “If I had not taken that class, I don’t know how I’d save any money.”

Another student, Danny DiBiase, said he took a college accounting class last year and that McGrath “taught us everything from the business of accounting.”

He went on, “Now I’m feeling more confident as I look at colleges.”

DeBiase is president of the investment club and said, as a focus for the club, he “wanted to know more about stocks…and why things happen.”

Weinberg, who, after graduating from Guilderland, went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at Binghamton and is now in a master’s program there, has his own real-estate business.

He said the business courses he took at Guilderland were “the best thing that happened to me in high school.” They are useful, he said, “no matter what field you go into.”

He uses the Microsoft Excel he learned in high school to run his real-estate business.

Weinberg went on, “I have a lot of tenants who don’t know how to write checks. They’re seniors in college.” He learned how to write checks in high school.

Finally, Mark Poskanzer, who volunteers to teach entrepreneurial skills to students, addressed the board. He said that the program is “inspiring students to participate in the global economy.”

He said that typically, when you ask students, “What do you want to do?” you hear, “I don’t know.” As students build business plans, they learn where their strengths and interests lie.

“This area has a vibrant entrepreneurial community,” he said. Entrepreneurs, he went on, often have great ideas but they need marketing and accounting skills.

The presentation concluded with a series of recommendations the department would like to pursue, including Career and Technical Education endorsement from the state for business management. The endorsement indicates a student has completed a rigorous program with a five-course sequence, a work-experience component, and a portfolio, and has passed a nationally accredited exam.

The department also recommended revising course offerings to sequence instruction under interest areas, such as management or finance, and it wants to improve communication throughout the school and with parents.

Promoting financial literacy is also a goal along with creating a new course to address social media marketing and advertising, and increasing the number of students in the career exploratory program. And, the department recommends starting instruction on keyboarding at the elementary level since it is hard to correct bad habits in high school.

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Demian Singleton said he was excited about the upcoming technology project and that keyboarding instruction at the elementary level may start as soon as next year. Teachers are currently looking at programs, many of which are free, he said. So many kids start without instruction, he said, adding, “They’re developing bad habits.” Singleton concluded of early keyboard instruction, “It’s an imperative.”

The business department aspires to be both nimble and progressive as, the department said, 70 percent of elementary students are expected, upon college graduation, to have jobs that don’t exist today.

The school board applauded the presentation and board member Gloria Towle-Hilt called the 72-page report “phenomenal.”

“I’m a big fan of life skills and of your department,” concluded board President Barbara Fraterrigo.