(BRADENTON FL - December 5th, 2006) When it comes to business education at Bayshore High School - they really mean business.

Bayshore's Business Academy - or “The BIZ” as it is commonly known on campus - was the first high school academy in the country to receive official recognition from the National Career Academy Coalition, according to Connie Majka, president of the NCAC.

Bayshore's Business Academy received the special recognition from the NCAC because it exceeds the organization's criteria for standards and practices, Majka said.

The goal of the four-year old Business Academy is to give students interested in a possible career in business a chance to immerse themselves in a business-oriented curriculum. When students take courses within the Academy, whether it is English, Social Studies or business courses like Economics or Entrepreneurship, the classes contain only other Academy students.

“The business Academy is really a small learning community and one of its strengths is that there is a certain closeness among the students and teachers that is sometimes hard to find in large high schools,” said Business teacher Lil Maddox.

Business teacher Bonnie Condor, English teacher Todd Raven and Social Studies teacher Jeannie Galindo round out the faculty for the Business Academy which has approximately 90 students enrolled this year.

“The academy is a three year program, so when the students come in as sophomores they know they will have Bonnie and me for business courses, Todd for English and Jeannie for Social Studies all three years,” Maddox said.

Before becoming a teacher, Raven actually owned a small networking and data-base design business.

“I try to show the students what a business owner wants, because after four years in business I know a lot about what they want,” Raven said.

With his business background, Raven said it's not difficult to tailor his English classes to the business curriculum of the Academy.

“With e-mail today and things like that, writing becomes extremely important, especially for business professionals,” Raven said. “If you're not going to write properly and you're going to send an e-mail to a boss that's full of errors, he's going to notice that right away, and promotions are going to be out the window.”

Galindo also said she finds interesting ways to incorporate a business angle into her Social Studies lessons.

“We look at American History based around the business decisions that were made and how those decisions influenced our history,” Galindo said. “We cover the same benchmarks and standards as everyone else in Florida, but we look at it through the eyes of what the business choice was that led to a particular event.”

The key to the Academy is that all four teachers, with the help and backing of Principal David Underhill and his staff, work together to develop a comprehensive business curriculum.

“We pride ourselves on being thematic,” Condor said. “One day the students came to me and they were all excited because they were learning about credit scores in Todd's English class. Learning about credit in the business class then became more meaningful and relevant.”

Corey Zornes, a junior at Bayshore, said he had a specific reason for enrolling in the Business Academy.

“I'm very interested in going to college and majoring in business administration and then starting my own business,” Zornes said. “Being in the Business Academy gives you a step ahead so when you go to college to study business you'll be better prepared. I'll have a leg up on other students in college who didn't have a business academy in high school.” Britney Guertin, also a junior, said participating in the Future Business Leaders of America at Bayshore led her to join the Academy.

“Studying business is good in general because it covers so many topics,” Guertin said. “One of the classes I'm taking right now is the Legal Aspects of Business, so I'm learning a lot about our court systems.”

In addition to classroom experience, students in Bayshore's Business Academy get to participate in exciting career-shadowing opportunities that allow them a first-hand look at what it's like to work in different fields. So far, Business Academy students have spent days shadowing employees in the medical field, accounting firms, news media, criminal justice, and numerous community entrepreneurs.

“We also emphasize the importance of post-secondary training,” said Laura Roberts, the School-to-Career Coordinator at Bayshore. “We encourage our students to pursue education beyond high school.”

One of the highlights of the Business Academy is the out-of-state field trips students take to major business centers around the country. Two years ago, Academy students visited Seattle, Washington, where they spent time at businesses like Boeing and the Pike Place Fish Market. Last year, students went to New York where they walked on Wall Street and visited the American Stock Exchange. This year, the Business Academy has a trip planned to Chicago where students will get a live look at the Federal Reserve and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

All four teachers said it is gratifying to see Business Academy graduates already getting involved in businesses and business activities in Manatee County and beyond. Last year a former Business Academy graduate, Joe Pezzino of SpiderWeb Networking, returned to Bayshore to take part in a panel discussion at the Academy on becoming an entrepreneur. He has also agreed to host career shadows for Business Academy students.

Regardless of their aspirations, the teachers in the Academy hope that the Business Academy experience will inspire students to continue with their educations.