Did you know St. Francis High School offers the largest Business & Technology Department of any Catholic high school in the diocese? These classes benefit students by exposing them to life skills as well as careers and college majors. They also help to balance course loads with foundational and honors-level classes that appeal to individual learners and colleges. The department offers exceptional college prep experiences, with alumni regularly returning to describe the benefits of the specialized and fundamental instruction. The classes also provide powerful opportunities to analyze, compare, evaluate, problem solve, and respect others' opinions. Our Microsoft technology enhances the impact of Business & Technology coursework. Some students also choose to take Chinese to complement individual college and career goals. Here's a department overview to help parents keep pace with SFHS students.

 

Department Overview: The Department educates with core electives that provide opportunities to augment career interest and life-long living skills. Business students learn how organizations create, manage, market, finance, and track value.  Technology students prepare to understand and use technology for personal development, career enhancement, and college preparation. The Department's hands-on approach allows students to deepen knowledge and exposure as they develop creativity, planning, evaluation, problem-solving, teamwork, and communication. The Business & Technology Department faculty has 130 years of experience in education, including 101 years of experience educating at St. Francis High School. 

 

Department Chair, Mike Lynch '77: "I teach students everything that will be practical and useful in their life. All our teachers have a real-life, practical application because everyone came from the public sector. It's invaluable, what everyone in the department adds, because everything is real life. We use real examples every day; it's just not reading from a book. We also expose kids to possible career choices. Kids say all the time that our classes are so beneficial because they helped them plan their career path. These are elective classes, meaning the kids have to choose to take them. This semester I have over 165 students--they could be taking other classes, but they see the benefits. Parents say their kids are talking to them about budgeting, stocks, and even giving them portfolio advice. Even as a teacher, it's so enjoyable to see the kids apply what they are learning."

Alum Isabel B., '17: All the teachers in the Business Department are willing to help you understand everything down to the smallest detail. This was very helpful to me as I just completed my first semester of college. The business classes at St. Francis prepared me to excel in college and will help me succeed later in my career. 

Teacher & Technology Integration Specialist Colleen Kaplan: "Freshmen students are required to take a Digital Literacy class because it allows all freshmen to begin school on the same page. We do a lot with organization and executive functioning as well as computers and digital literacy. We provide our students phenomenal computer technology, but we also give them the tools to use it. Skills include basics, such as how to write an outline, report, resume and how to use Excel. We also cover basic coding and photo, video, and website editing. We try to expose them to a little bit of everything. Students then also enjoy another unit with the Guidance Department that uses the Naviance computer program which focuses on career exploration. At the beginning of the unit, 90% of students want to be doctor, teacher, lawyer or something their parents do. Then students go into Naviance. They take multiple intelligence tests that map their personalized learning profile and expose them to new careers and one that especially suits them. Taking it further, we then connect the students to people in those careers.  Wealth managers, sports broadcasting and journalism, veterinarian technicians, music therapy - kids are connected as freshmen. It's about broadening their horizons. We reformat the curriculum regularly to meet the growing college-preparatory demands of our students. We make it as relevant as possible and are constantly evolving based on student need. Also we discuss cyber-bullying and Internet privacy and having a digital footprint and data mining. The students need to know they will have a profile that stays with them."

 

Student Ryne P., '18: "I've taken Economics, Visual Basic, Honors Java, and Computer Hardware. Honors Java was my favorite because it was a very challenging course that pushed me to learn new things and improve skills that I need for my desired career path. St. Francis is helping me to pursue a career in technology by offering a multitude of classes along with integrating technology into every class with the Surface Pro."