Entrepeneurship class visits New York

The Entrepreneurship Academy took a one-day trip to New York City on Friday, Nov. 19. The students were given the opportunity to do business with the wholesale market there.

Senior Silvia Huezo said that the purpose of the trip was to experience business practices in the real world. "The purpose was going to the wholesale district to buy things for our business," she explained.

Entrepreneurship co-teacher Derek Sontz elaborated, saying that students will then sell what they bought for a profit. "Students would buy low and sell high," he said.

Through the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, trip sponsor Leonard Greenberg donated the money to pay for the 33 students who went, as well as $50 in seed money for each student. Sontz said the students started their businesses with this money.

The students were prepared with personal business plans, which Huezo said included a chosen industry to trade in. For instance, Huezo's business was in fashion, while other students might have traded in the music industry.

The field trip also included a tour of NBC Studios. Sontz said that the class saw newscasters Stone Phillips and Tom Brokaw. Mann said that the class was also allowed onto the set of Saturday Night Live, where they met Kenan Thompson and Luke Wilson.

The class left Blair at 6:30 a.m. and returned at 10:30 p.m., joining a variety of other schools. "We were one of eight other buses that went on this trip," said co-teacher Sundra Mann. These buses include Gaithersburg High School as well as high schools from Prince George's County, D.C. Public Schools, Baltimore Public Schools and Boston Public Schools, Mann said. The Entrepreneurship Academy has done this trip every semester for the past three years.

For more information on the Blair Entrepreneurship Academy, click here. For more information on the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, visit www.nfte.com.