Taking The Jump

21 Gray Bees pilot Senior Capstone in business and entrepreneurship

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Twenty-one Gray Bees took “the jump” into a new experiential business course that is part of a larger effort to develop a Senior Capstone experience at St. Benedict’s Prep. History teacher William Fox ’94 is teaching the course, aptly named The Jump, for seniors embarking on the next chapter of their lives. The pilot Capstone is expected to grow into a required senior experience that builds on the skills and resilience students acquired through the Backpacking Project, the Water Adversity Challenge (WAC) and the Wilderness Inspired Leadership Development (WILD). 

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“The Capstone underscores Benedict’s commitment to experiential education in terms of students growing personally, professionally and academically.”

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While The Trail, WAC and WILD place students in adverse circumstances to test them physically and mentally, The Jump is academic-based with an experiential component that exposes students directly to the opportunities and challenges of running a real-world business. Mr. Fox, a business and management consultant for more than 25 years, is uniquely qualified to develop this business-oriented Capstone, which will be scaled up to an 18-month experience for 150 seniors. In addition to providing a four-year sequence of leadership training, “The Capstone underscores Benedict’s commitment to experiential education in terms of students growing personally, professionally and academically,” said Mr. Fox. “The fact that Benedict’s continues to employ unique and new approaches to meaningful education is something that differentiates Benedict’s students from other people out there.” 

The full-fledged Senior Capstone is slated to begin during Winter Term next year. Students in the pilot course are learning the basics of business management and running a retail enterprise through the advanced business simulation game, Vitronomics, a program used in M.B.A. programs throughout the country. They’ve also taken on a client, the Gray Bee Store. “The class will act as an outside advisory committee to the school store, advising on how it’s doing from a profitability perspective,” said Mr. Fox. “They’re going to look at the supply chains and determine if the current set up is ideal and make recommendations for running a new campaign with new products.” 

When fully implemented, The Jump will serve to cement Gray Bees’ connection to St. Benedict’s during a vital juncture in their lives. “We want our seniors to know that no matter where they are, Benedict’s is here for them,” said Mr. Fox. “It’s not a place that ever goes away. The School will always be here for them and we want them to be there for us.”