Making Connections Monday: @BrenhamCTE gives students a taste of what it’s like to be a retail business owner #IChooseBrenham

The Career & Technical Education department at Brenham High School is giving students a taste of what it’s like to be a retail business owner. Using specialized software from Knowledge Matters, BHS CTE teacher Chris Kenjura is offering six sections of Virtual Business, a brand new class at Brenham High School. Students work together in small groups to build a virtual retail store from the ground up. Students do everything from product pricing to placement of displays and checkout counters to staffing and even advertising. Groups complete cross-curricular lessons involving industry specific math and reading lessons and also compete in challenges. The first step in becoming a Knowledge Matters “Mega-Mogul” is to establish a grocery store. Last week, students were given 16 items for their grocery store and competed to see who could price the items for the largest profit. Kenjura awarded the winning groups a soda and candy bar, in addition to classroom bragging rights!

When students have successfully established a grocery store, they can move on to a sporting goods store and then an electronics store to build their virtual retail empire. In addition to learning how to run their own business, students also focus on business-related vocabulary every Wednesday. Kenjura places vocabulary term around the classroom and students rotate through stations researching vocabulary on their personal devices. At the end of the course, each student receives a certificate of completion that can be used on their resume.

Kenjura is hoping to add a personal finance class next year to offer students the opportunity to learn skills such as budgeting and saving, paying taxes, building credit and even buying a car. Providing students with opportunities to have discussions about real life problems is Kenjura’s favorite part of this program. To learn more about the CTE department at Brenham High School, visit http://www.brenhamcte.com/.