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New MWHS Business Center Models Professional Workplace
Click the above image for more photos of the new Business Center at Mound Westonka High School
September 26, 2019 — Students turn out of a bustling hallway and enter a lower level academic wing at Mound Westonka High School on their way to marketing class. Halfway down the corridor, silver lettering welcomes students into the modern, office-like space that is the new MWHS Business Center. Groups of eager learners sit on plush benches or cluster around high-top tables in the bright and open space. At the far end of the room, pairs of students film themselves as they practice digital presentations in glass-walled conference rooms.
Completed over the summer, the MWHS Business Center offers high school students a glimpse into a modern workplace. In only a matter of weeks, teachers say the new space has transformed learning for business and marketing students at the high school.
“Since day one, students have said how they ‘feel different’ when they are in the Business Center,” said MWHS business teacher Toby Robinson. “Students have shared how this space makes them want to learn more and grow as students.”
The new space includes a 30-person computer lab with low-top and high-top work surfaces. Dedicated monitors on each work surface allow for screen sharing from students’ devices. A conference room with an operable wall allows for flexibility to accommodate a 12-person conference table if opened up, or two, six-person collaborative spaces when divided. The room includes a monitor wall integrated into a wood accent wall.
Floor-to-ceiling glass partition walls divide the conference room and computer lab from a flexible learning area that was outfitted with a combination of new soft seating furniture, traditional furniture and high-top seating options. The flexible learning area includes a new projector, large projection screen and sound system to allow students to share their work in a large group setting.
“I think the new space allows my students to collaborate more effectively,” said Sue Simonson, MWHS business teacher. “Instead of having computers in straight lines, they are grouped in pods. Each pod has a large TV that I can project to and one of the student computers can project to.”
“There is also space for students to get up and move around,” Simonson added. “I can open the glass doors, and my students can spill out into the open area when both rooms are having work time.”
In addition to housing business and marketing classes during the school day, the new space is also being fully utilized by the school’s DECA Chapter, a co-curricular program that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. MWHS DECA was able to comfortably accommodate 85 people in the Business Center at a recent meeting for new members - 63 students, 19 officers and three advisors.
MWHS students practice a group presentation in the new Business Center
Adding relevancy and creating ownership
Paid for through district capital and long-term facilities maintenance funds, the space was created to make business and marketing lessons more relevant for students. The end goal is to prepare students for post-high school educational opportunities and equip them to take on the challenges of a competitive and changing job market.
“The professional space allows students to feel like they are being prepared for real-life while they are learning in a real-life type of environment,” Robinson said.
Simonson said that her older students are really proud of the space, while her eighth-grade students don't know any different. “[Students] want to behave and work differently to match the aesthetic of the space,” Simonson said. “They comment on how professional the computers look - like they are in a real business setting. When one student found a pencil mark on one of the desks, they asked if they could go get something to clean it off with.”
MWHS junior Trent Kelly has a marketing class in the new Business Center and also participates in the DECA program as an officer. He said that he wishes all of his peers could have class in this type of space.
“My favorite part about the new space is how it is multipurpose, flexible, and provides an environment where I can focus on business only,” Kelly said. “It puts me in a real-life environment for business with conference rooms and real presentation technology.”
Kelly said that the new space makes his learning feel “more valuable.” “I feel like the new space is easier to respect,” said Kelly. “It makes me feel like my education is being taken more seriously in the subject I like the most.”