Virtual Enterprise: Bringing business to the classroom

     Marketing. Sales. IT. All key components of any business. But for students interested in working for or even running a company, there’s often little opportunity to acquire experience before joining the workforce.

    Enter Virtual Enterprise, a two-year-old class that gives aspiring students the chance to be employees of a virtual business.

    “We have it set up so there’s marketing departments, a CEO, finance, all the traditional business departments,” Virtual Enterprise teacher Thomas Parks said. “We give students a chance to become employees of these companies, and they set it up just like a regular business would, as if they were starting up for the first time.”

    Virtual Enterprise goes against the norm of the teacher lecturing from the front of the room, assigning homework and handing out tests. Instead, the students are divided into two companies, Capital Enterprise and Extra LLC, where they are put into complete control of the classroom and are responsible for managing their own schedules.

    “Both of them have totally different business plans, so they have to come together as a group once we decide who’s going to be CEO and put all the pieces in place,” Parks said. “Then they have the chance to choose what exactly their roles in the company are going to be.”

    Another aspect of Virtual Enterprise that sets it apart from other classes is the fact that acceptance into the class itself requires the student to go through an actual interviewing process.

    “On the Capital Enterprise website, we have a button that says ‘Apply,’” Extra LLC CEO senior Marissa Stephenson said. “The kids fill out an application, which is general information, and then they go through an interview process where they interview with second year students such as myself or [senior and CEO of Capital Enterprise] John Dunning.”

    In addition to interviewing for getting into the class, students are also questioned to determine their position in the companies.

    “I interviewed for [CEO] my first year,” Dunning said. “Coach Parks, [Shannon] Wolfgang and [DeLisa] Cohen asked me questions that would be similar to the same type of questions if I were applying as a real CEO at a real company, or any position. We all go through the interview process; we all earn each position based on our strengths and weaknesses and how we interviewed.”

    Virtual Enterprise is still full of its own challenges, just like any other class. In particular, students are graded not only on their work but also the work of their fellow employees.

    “It can be kind of difficult sometimes,” Stephenson said. “[Seniors] Conner [Leinbach] and Nadeem [Sbaiti] are doing what we call an elevator pitch, but everyone is graded on how well they do. It’s things like that that make it hard. As a company, you really get the aspect of ‘If one person fails, you all fail.’”

    Depending on their department, students might be attempting to advertise their products to other virtual businesses from different high schools or actually going out to local business such as Lowe’s and trying to form contracts with them. Often, students in one department will have to work with another, such as marketing cooperating with IT to create a commercial.

    Another issue for students entering the class for the first time is trying to get used to the idea of having superiors inside of a classroom.

    “You kind of have to adjust to it, because you have peers above and below you,” said senior Allyson Blake, who is in her first year in the class. “I’m vice president of marketing, so I have people my age under me, and we’re all students, so it’s a little weird in that sense in having to be directive.”

    Despite that, for those who have an interest in the business field, Virtual Enterprise is a class that comes both highly regarded and recommended.

    “I’d definitely say that Virtual Enterprise has been the most enriching educational experience in my four years of high school, academically and as far as personal enjoyment goes,” Dunning said. “I genuinely feel like I have learned lessons in Virtual Enterprise that I can walk out of this high school with tomorrow and apply into the real world, through college, and eventually in my career once I’m graduated from college. So I’m very thankful to have had an experience with the class.”

– By Calvin To