The school offers a variety of business classes ranging from Business Essentials to Sports Marketing. After students take a business class, they have the opportunity to join the Marketing Management class.
Marketing Management, or the Den, runs the school store. Business and marketing teacher Erin Fine said the Den is a co-curricular organization.
“I love watching the students take an idea and bring it all the way through the business process and then see them have success in the items that they’re choosing to sell,” Fine said.
The Den class period takes place during fifth hour. Fine said the class looks different day to day.
“There’s days where certain teams might be really busy with things that they have to do and then there’s days where certain teams don’t have as much to work on,” Fine said. “There’s always going to be a group of students in the Den working the lunch hour.”
There are four teams: graphic design, marketing, apparel and web. Senior Hannah Davis is one of the co-CEOs and has been a member of the Den since her sophomore year. She said she helps everyone stay on task while managing two groups.
“I give them what they need to work on and help them with whatever they need,” Davis said. “Other than that, I do a lot on the side that isn’t seen, the online side, creating items on the store and a lot of the financial stuff.”
DECA is the national organization for business and marketing students. This year, the Den received gold certification through DECA for the eighth year in a row.
“Every year to maintain this, we have to write a paper to DECA that explains our whole marketing strategy and management and basically a rundown of everything we do in the store,” Davis said. “We all worked together to write some paragraphs and made a great paper.”
Fine said every member of the Den is a part of DECA, but the level they compete at is up to the student.
“It’s always exciting [finding out we got certified],” Fine said. “I love to see the students get excited about it because it really is their work and so to maintain the gold certification for eight straight years is a huge achievement.”
There is a long process students go through to join the Den. Fine said they will announce next year’s team mid-April.
“I always have an informational meeting where I go through the ins and outs, what our teams look like, what day-to-day stuff looks like to give people the option to learn a little bit more,” Fine said. “From there, I have an online application, they have to give me a resume on paper and then there are also teacher recommendations that come in to be a part of the application process. Once we have all of that information, we move into interviews.”
The Den is open before school during late start, lunches on odd and all days, TIPS, after school and occasionally during events. Davis said her favorite part about the class is the creative freedom she has.
“If you’re at all considering [joining the Den] go forth with it. It has been an experience I’m so grateful for,” Davis said. “Going into high school business wasn’t ever something I thought I would want to be involved with and now business is something I’m going to pursue later in school.”
