Foundation for Free Enterprise Partners with NMHS

The students in Karen Vicari's Business Strategy class at are busy developing business plans for their own unique businesses. 

"21 businesses have been created in my five Business Strategy classes," Vicari told Patch. "I am amazed at the creativity of the students," she added. 

From a design your own cupcake store to a community service concept, the students in the Business Strategy classes have collaborated to develop a business that is unique, appealing and profitable.

With the implementation of the Academies program, Vicari, who has been teaching business courses at NMHS for many years, established the Business Strategy class as a prerequisite introductory business class, and partnered with the Foundation for Free Enterprise (FFFE). 

FFFE is an organization comprised of leading area business people dedicated to preparing and inspiring American business leaders of tomorrow with a "fundamental understanding of business, and free market economics in an entrepreneurial, free enterprise society." 

Vicari holds her classes in the , a room that she was integral in helping to design, and the room where the FFFE held their board meeting yesterday. 

Kathryn English, President of the Foundation for Free Enterprise, works closely with Vicari and the students in her Business Strategy Class and invited the FFFE board members to have their meeting in the Global Leadership room to show them what a technologically cutting edge classroom looks like. 

As part of NMHS's partnership with FFFE, English comes to the school monthly to meet with the students in the Business Strategy class. Currently, she is arranging for board members to Skype with the students to provide them with a context for how a business functions and give them an opportunity to talk to professionals and ask questions.

Members of the FFFE board asked Vicari how the technology in the Global Leadership classroom helps to prepare the students for a career in business. Vicari said that the room provides the students with the same tools that are available in the business world. Vicari explained that the classroom allows the students to Skype with professionals, and the students are preparing their business plans on the computers, as well as using them to prepare Excel spreadsheets and charts. They are also capable of preparing monthly sales projections and marketing pitches.

The Board of Directors for the FFFE are:

The FFFE want students in their program to know that the contribution of entrepreneurs "goes far beyond the goods or services they develop and sell. Their success sends an inspirational message that says: in a free society anything is possible."