Every other Friday in room I103, Prep students gather as members of business club led by senior co-presidents Anastasia Greene, Manoli Tramountanas, Henry Pehl, and club moderator Assistant Principal for Student Life Mr. Kelly.

There have been different iterations of business club in past years. Last school year, it was known as the career connections club, also known as CCC, or C3. In CCC, the club was split into two departments, with Tramountanas ’20 the head of the STEM department and Pehl ‘20 the head of the humanities department. These groups oversaw contacting and connecting with professionals who could come to meetings and speak about their respective fields. However, as Pehl ’20 and Tramountanas ‘20 became executive members this school year and Greene ‘20 was brought on board, they reflected on last year’s club experience and decided to add to the program’s method.

“We decided that what business club was missing was actual experience,” says Tramountanas ’20.

During a leadership summit that co-president Anastasia Greene ’20 attended, “I met a lot of girls who were a part of the DECA program and had excelled in it. I wanted to start a DECA program at Prep, but it involves needing a business teacher and a window class period so after questions it fell through,” she said. DECA is a non-profit nationwide organization that has high school and college divisions that, according to their website, “prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management.” However, “I wanted to still bring the characteristics of DECA to business club,” Greene added.

Thus, for this year’s format, “we’re going to design a product, market it, and sell it to students” for the first semester and part of the second said Pehl ’20.

The club’s first product? Prep slides slippers.

“It’s going to be cool to see our product on the feet of Prep students and to see it around campus and be like “yeah, we’re responsible for that. Every member can think that, and that’s cool,” said Pehl ‘20. “There’s a lot that goes into it that you’d be surprised. We have to go through lots of red tape to get the product approved, then order it, contact distributors, and when and how we’re going to sell it and deliver it,” he added.

Sales should begin in February 2020. “We’ve assigned a lot of marketing homework, so people are making posters, we’ll make a video hopefully, and send out some emails,” said Pehl ‘20.

“We’re thinking of having the Boys’ Varsity basketball team sponsor us,” joked Tramountanas ‘20.

“We’re going to sponsor them,” replied Pehl ‘20. “They’re going to have to wear business club patches on their uniforms.”

For the rest of the school year, “we want to continue what we did in C3 and bring in speakers to talk about business,” said Pehl. “We’re looking into having seminars, have people come in and talk about writing a business email on LinkedIn, what a good handshake is like, what to say in a meeting and their business experience. Depending on how many people show interest, we can move it into the theater, and it’ll be open to anyone.”

“What I love about the club is the amount of ideas that can come together in one meeting, like when we were trying to choose the product and then trying to figure out ways to market it,” said Greene ‘20. “When all of the ideas come together and the work that the club and the chairs have done pays off.”

The club itself has over 1/8 of the student body signed up. However, 40-50 members come to meetings each time. “Sometimes people show up, sometimes they don’t. We like 100% participation every time,” said Tramountanas ‘20. However, “everyone has their commitments to lunch. We understand, but it’s nice that people will miss one, but they will consistently come,” joined Pehl ‘20. There will be cookies at meetings as well.

For students thinking about joining, “Everyone gets to do what they want to do. I thought business only appealed to certain groups of people, but business is for everybody and that’s what our club tries to embody,” said Tramountanas ‘20.

“Join!” exclaimed Greene ‘20. “Everyone has a unique strength that they can bring to the club.”