Before I start, I wanted to mention how this is the 4th and last article I’m writing for Newport DECA. What started as a joke as to how I’d contribute to the DECA Debrief has become one of the many ways I’ve been able to share my passions in business with others (Credit to Songling for suggesting the great name “JC Hot Takes”). I also wanted to thank you all, the readers for taking the time and reading my articles. Although they can sometimes feel like I’m writing unhinged rants, people have told me that they appreciate reading the stuff I’m writing. It’s an experience I can’t characterize beyond simply being gratifying.

Anyways, in this article, I’m going to be talking about the business classes offered at my high school and my overall thoughts on them.

Introduction to Marketing

If there’s one class I can recommend that everyone at Newport should take, it would be Intro to Marketing. It’s currently taught by Mr. Borth, one of my favorite teachers and a mentor who I believe truly inspires students. If you have passion for business and bring it to class, you’ll learn so much in introduction to marketing. I also appreciate how the class covers a wide variety of topics. There’s a pretty good introduction to topics like sales, economics, and professionalism. The curriculum also includes a dedicated career development unit where students create LinkedIn profiles and resumes. Overall, it’s a good introduction to a broad variety of business topics that I think anyone interested in business should take.

Another underrated advantage of Intro to Marketing would be how it sets you up nicely for DECA competitions itself. One of the first units that you end up doing is a unit on marketing (funny how a class called Intro to Marketing will teach you about marketing). If you’re just starting to join DECA, having the time to work on your DECA presentation in class can make that first year of DECA so much more approachable.

Advanced Marketing

Advanced Marketing is a second-year course designed for students who have already taken Intro to Marketing. It’s also a course that’s heavily built around DECA. Most people in Advanced Marketing end up doing some sort of state paper which takes up a lot of time. Most of your class time will be spent preparing for your actual State paper. In terms of “structure”, the class is pretty free form. As long as you set up some goals and timelines to work towards, you’re given a pretty long leash. There’s not really any micromanaging. I will say, that can end up being a double-edged sword. It’s almost a stereotype that people don’t do a lot of work in that class (which in all honesty is a crime I am also most definitely guilty of). but as long as you’re driven and motivated to learn, it’s a good experience.

Another advantage is quite specific, but if you’re on DECA leadership, Advanced Marketing becomes a chunk of time in the middle of the day for you to work on your leadership responsibilities.

The bottom line with Advanced Marketing is that it’s a class that’s built around empowering you. I like to think of it as a multiplier. Unlike a normal class, Advanced Marketing won’t hold your hand through the curriculum, nagging at you to learn. Rather it gives you the tools you need to succeed, and from there, the only real limiting factor is your dedication to the class.

AP Economics

AP Economics is probably the most “traditional” course that you might take to get into DECA. It actually isn’t considered a CTE class, but rather a social studies elective. Overall, I think it’s taught pretty well. The teacher (Mrs. Landeau) has decades of teaching experience, and it shows in her work. She does a great job at meeting students where they are and pushing them to succeed. I’ve been hard pressed to find a teacher who is as understanding as Mrs. Landeau.

For the course itself, it’s an AP course, which means there’s a pretty detailed course outline. The first semester was microeconomics, and the second semester was macro. Going in, I didn’t think I’d learn much (I’d studied a bit of economics before and had general economic principles had come up before in other aspects of business), but to my surprise, I learned a lot. Having a comprehensive econ learning experience helped me connect many of the concepts I’d previously learned and turn them into a comprehensive understanding of economics. If I was just starting out learning about business, I’d say that AP Econ might be a bit challenging, but it provides a pretty strong general business framework to build off of.

Economics is also a pretty good skill to just know. For example, knowing how interest rates might impact the overall economy will impact stock purchasing decisions. Analyzing overall macroeconomic trends can help when making business admin decisions around things like hiring.

Personal Finance

I’ve gotten mixed reviews on Personal Finance. I think if you ask anyone, they’ll agree that personal finance is an essential life skill. Simply put, we live in a capitalist society and at some point, will need to interact with money to get what we want. I think where people differ is on the best way to learn. There’s a lot of good ways to learn, Khan Academy has a financial literacy course, Investopedia can help you break down confusing topics and plenty of personal finance youtubers exist (Graham Stephan and the Plain Bagel come quickly to the top of my mind). Another way to learn is by taking the course in school.

In terms of what you learn, it covers most of the essential parts of managing your own money. The content does tend to get quite dry and it’s quite literally one period each day where the only topic is facts about money. Overall, if you feel like you’ll be able to learn personal finance on your own, then you probably don’t need this course. A lot of the content you can probably just learn on your own in a couple weeks. If you’re unsure about what personal finance even is and have an extra elective slot, it’s not a bad choice.

Accounting

To quickly preface, I haven’t taken Accounting or Business Law. I’m writing based on the experiences of my friends who are currently or have recently taken these courses.

Accounting tends to be a pretty easy class. Most of the content can probably be summarized in <10 minutes of textbook reading per day. The tests are open note so you could look at the textbook while you took the test (This might’ve changed since then). Overall, grading wise, it’s a pretty relaxed class so if that’s something you’re stressed about, you should be good.

For the content actually taught, it was pretty basic. You start by learning about the accounting equation and then slowly start to build off that. If accounting is one of your passions, you could probably get further just studying it on your own. Overall, it’s a course where if you’re not interested in accounting, you probably shouldn’t spend your elective slot on this and if you’re interested in accounting, you can get further studying on your own.

Business Law

Business Law isn’t actually that much business law. The first half of the class is learning about law itself and understanding the criminal justice system. The second half starts getting into business specifics as it touches on subjects like contracts and other forms of business-related legal documentation.

If you know nothing about law and want to understand the basics, the textbook used in class can definitely help. Overall, it’s a class that you should take if you’re interested in law but have never done anything related to it before.

Closing Thoughts

I’m very fortunate there’s a plethora of business options available at Newport. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re reading it from the DECA Debrief and are probably interested to some extent in business. If I had to leave you with one piece of advice as you consider exploring business, it would be to get started. Newport offers plenty of ways to start learning about business and the internet provides many more. The best time to get started was yesterday. The second best time is today.