In a unique approach to business education, Kelly Janeczek is turning her Business Management 2 class (BMT2) into a real-world business team.
Milford High School has a notoriously well-rounded business program; Janeczek, in only her second year of teaching at Milford, has already made an enormous footprint.
“I was inspired to teach business because I was in it for 20 years and I wanted to tell people starting their career the things that I wish I would have known when I was in their position,” said Janeczek, who spent her first year at Milford teaching various finance, accounting, marketing and business classes.
She also took longtime MHS Business Teacher Kaye Sommer’s role in running the school’s DECA program.
“It was an excessive amount of stress and work,” said Janeczek, “but it was a huge learning process and I am ready to hit the ground running this year.”
During this time, she also developed a plan dedicated to her BMT2 class. She wanted to establish a real-world business with the class and show how the marketing world works through a first-hand experience.
The BMT2 class is a year long course. Students will spending the first semester using a computer simulation, where they build a city and each student runs their own individual business within that city.
Students write business plans to understand to learn all the steps it takes to begin the business, and then spend their time establishing and running the business within the simulation.
This same city will be used each year that students take the course, and will be continuously built up by each BMT2 class. When asked if she plans to adjust and change the simulation and class in future years, Janeczek replied: “Yes, very much so. I am still working to figure out what materials and information is essential and what is not. It is very much a trial and error process.”
The second semester of BMT2 is when students will put their acquired knowledge into a real-world creation of a business.
Where students spent their first semester individually running a simulated business, they will spend the second semester working as a team to run their creation. “In reality, the challenge is that if we are to open a business, we do have to rush through it and not waste a second of our time,” Janeczek said. “I wish we had enough time to accomplish everything, but that isn’t possible when we only have one hour a day for 16 weeks.” Janeczek’s priority with the business is that the students will learn real-world scenarios and experiences from a safe space in the classroom.
Senior Jack Stine is a student in the BMT2 class. “Mrs. J is such a good teacher when it comes to teaching real-world scenarios and experiences,” said Stine. Stine wants to go into business and marketing for a career, so he knew that BMT2 would be a great class for him to take.
“I’m so excited to use the information I learn from this class and apply it to when I am a business man in the future. I am very lucky to have this opportunity and teacher.”
Janeczek’s overarching goal with the class is that they put all of the money that they make from the business into the school, and the clubs and organizations.
This program and this class is something that could not be done without Janeczek. She is one of the most loved teachers in all of Milford High School and deserves the world for all that she does for the students and the school. “This class is very exciting and important to me,” she said. “Everybody wants to build and create, and are all brand new to this, so I want us to pull something together that is meaningful.”