• Nineteen students from Rutherford High School participated in the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Regional Competition at Mercer County Community College. The students competed in the following business related events: Business Calculations, Business Procedures, Accounting, Business Communications, Cyber Security, Economics, Marketing, Personal Finance, and Sports Management.
• Four students advanced from the FBLA Regional Competition to the FBLA State Competition and competed in Business Math, Business Procedures, Introduction to Business, and Introduction to Business Communications. Five other FBLA members competed at the State level in the following competitions: Public Speaking I, Business Ethics, and Impromptu Speaking.
• To show school spirit four FBLA members volunteered their time on Back to School Night to sell RHS apparel from the School Store.
• The Investing and the Stock Market class continued to participate in the Stock Market Game Worldwide sponsored by the Securities Industry Foundation for Economic Education. A real-world simulation, The Stock Market Game enables participants to discover the risks and rewards involved in decision-making, the sources and uses of capital, and other related economic concepts.
• Marketing students worked on a year-long project to design a business plan. Using concepts covered in class including designing a logo, creating a budget and management plan, developing a risk management plan, creating an advertising campaign and a marketing mix, students created business plans for a business of their choice. This year students chose to design a clothing boutique, a graphic design company, a personal finance firm and a sports restaurant. The teams presented the projects in print and electronic portfolio formats. (Some utilized desktop publishing and web design techniques and formats, learned in and worked on in Mrs. Drewes’ classes.
• Three students applied to attend the Foundation for Free Enterprise Summer Business Camp seminar for High School students during the summer of 2011. The seminar is dedicated to the development of future business leaders by providing them with an understanding and an appreciation of the free market and its relevance to the economy and individual people’s lives.
• FBLA bought, tagged and distributed flowers to the secretarial and clerical staff for Administrative Professional’s Day in appreciation for all they do.
• Ten FBLA students participated in and chaperoned the “Ragamuffin Parade” in Rutherford, sponsored by the Rutherford Recreation Department in celebration of a safe and fun Halloween for elementary school age children.
• The school store continues to flourish both before homeroom and after school. FBLA volunteers happily staff it.
• The Business Department took part in the “An Evening of the Visual Arts” by displaying projects from Desktop Publishing, Web Page Design, and Marketing classes.
• The Desktop Publishing class created the four-fold program for “An Evening of the Visual Arts.”
• The Desktop Publishing class created cover designs for the End of Year Retiree Celebration.
• The Business Education department continues to match students with part-time jobs as they become available.
• Students from Mrs. Richmond’s and Mrs. Leonard’s business classes attended the Berkeley College 13th Annual NJ Business Forum. The students met with executives from a diverse range of professions and participated in an interactive session focusing on what it takes to be successful in today’s challenge business climate.
• Under the direction of Mrs. Drewes and Mrs. Richmond, Rutherford High School’s chapter of FBLA recently visited School 15 in Jersey City to deliver over 130 bears to the preschool classes along with a set of Berenstein Bear books. While there, the FBLA members read the books to the children as part of a literacy initiative.
• Chris Peterman, Certified Public Accountant from the CPA Organization, spoke to Mrs. Leonard’s Accounting and Business classes about the accounting profession.
• Students enrolled in Fundamentals of Contemporary Business participated in the National Financial Literacy Challenge. Sixteen students scored higher then the national average and of the sixteen, two scored in the 90th percentile The Challenge is an initiative recommended by the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and administered by the Department of the U.S. Treasury
• Mrs. Drewes Web Design classes worked on a group project in collaboration with Mr. Stracco’s English classes, creating web sites on Canterbury Tales. Mr. Stracco’s students supplied the content and Mrs. Drewes students designed out and created the web sites. The students communicated through a “drop box” system created by the tech team specifically for this project.
• Mrs. Leonard learned the upgraded version of the student response system software and she uses it in her Honors Accounting class.
• Mrs. Drewes and Mrs. Richmond are working to learn the upgraded versions of the Adobe software so that they can be properly implemented into their classrooms next year.
• The Business Department, in collaboration with the Social Studies department created a curriculum for a new course – Financial Literacy, which is designed to meet the financial literacy graduation requirement.
• The Business Department continues to encourage students to create projects for other academic courses in their project classes in order to foster “real life” and “sense and meaning” initiatives.
• Students from Mrs. Leonard’s Fundamentals of Contemporary Business class participated in the 15th edition of the annual Consumer Bowl competition hosted by the State Division of Consumer Affairs and local consumer affairs. The Consumer Bowl is designed to educate students about their rights in the marketplace and to help them become more knowledgeable consumers.