Ryan Schloesser ('24)
Serving as one of the three career academies offered at Lawrence High School, the Business & International Studies Academy aims to prepare 11th and 12th-grade students for successful futures in the Business world. The Academy plans to run interactive events and engaging seminars for students to learn essential business skills that they can take with them as they prepare for the next step in their professional careers. But to find out more about the fastest-growing career academy at Lawrence High School, I interviewed Vice President Paige Van Hise, to give us some additional information.
Can you explain what the purpose of a Career Academy is?
The purpose of a career academy is to set students up for successful futures in whatever career they plan to pursue after high school. The career academies aim to help students develop the needed knowledge and skills to succeed in their field of study. The Business & International Studies Academy specifically utilizes discussions with professionals, student-run seminars, and other engaging activities to achieve this.
Is the Academy only open to business students?
No, although the academy is mainly focused on learning about business, the skills learned can be applied to numerous career paths. Since practically every field ties into business in one way or another the knowledge learned serves as an excellent tool for all students. In fact, many of our students plan to pursue fields outside of business such as architecture, computer science, psychology, and many more.
What kinds of activities does the Academy have?
There are a variety of engaging activities where students can learn more about their field of interest. There are opportunities for students to meet with and learn from experienced professionals, students can attend or run seminars on business topics, as well as participate in hands-on activities that demonstrate business concepts. No matter how students prefer to learn, there will always be opportunities to develop their professional skills while still having fun.
Does the Business & International Studies Academy have any correlation to other clubs at Lawrence High School?
Currently, there is no correlation with other clubs. We hope to collaborate with many of the clubs at Lawrence High School in the future through the means of hosting events and other kinds of interactive activities.
What are the future plans for the Academy?
In the future, we hope to begin working with real companies as we have in the past, while also implementing even more seminars and meetings with professionals for students to be as prepared as possible for their careers after high school.
What kind of students are you looking for to join?
Unfortunately, the Business & International Studies Academy is only open to juniors and seniors so we are looking for any students in grades 11 or 12 interested in developing their business skills to be as prepared as possible for their futures pertaining to a career in the business world.
Interested in joining?
The Business & International Studies Academy does not have a set meeting date but you can follow @lhsbusinessacademy on Instagram to stay up to date on future events and seminars. If you are interested in joining please reach out to one of the academies officers, ryan.schloesser@ltps.info and paige.vanhise@ltps.info, or reach out to one of the advisors THuber@ltps.org or aleggert@ltps.info.