Innovation: Business & Finance, Food Culture, Phoenix Leadership
BUSINESS & FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
The primary goal of these courses is to support students in finding value in the topics of business studies, financial management and entrepreneurship by building their knowledge and understanding of how the financial marketplace works. These courses focus on making current issues in the global marketplace relevant for students, while also providing them with hands-on and project-based learning opportunities to build and develop skills of critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving, and economic decision making, with emphasis on preparing students for life beyond high school.
In Enterprise & Innovation (part of the Food Culture Program), learners are situated as members of an in-house business consulting group, learning about the various phases of planning and implementation of business operations strategy in the Vic Cafe as part of the newly developed Food Culture program.
In Financial Management, learners engage with topics of personal financial management (banking, taxation, credit, investment planning, retirement planning), entrepreneurship and marketing in a customizable project-based learning format.
FOOD CULTURE
The recent explosion in Edmonton’s food culture has inspired a new and unique interdisciplinary opportunity at Victoria School for students to connect Culinary Arts, Entrepreneurship (Enterprise & Innovation), and Hospitality Management in a real-world hands-on program while earning credits toward their Alberta High School Diploma.
Through these authentic and collaborative experiences in the context of Edmonton’s food culture community, students will learn to plan, operate, and manage a business. In a customized cafeteria space, students develop and apply industry skills and standards, and learn aspects of kitchen teamwork and hospitality leadership. Through these practical experiences, students make genuine and personal connections to career pathways, build network connections among industry professionals, and begin developing their professional work experience portfolios for life beyond high school.
As students matriculate to the Advanced series of this course, students can elect to enroll in dual-credit Apprenticeship Industry Training (AIT) learning opportunity to complete their first-year of apprenticeship technical training, alongside other microcredential opportunities.
PHOENIX STUDENT LEADERSHIP TEAM
Within the Phoenix Leadership Team, students can be part of a youth-led collaborative group that coordinates school-wide activities and events with a mind for social responsibility and community growth.
The Victoria Leadership program offers the opportunity to become an active part of the school community through the development of skills related to advocacy, communication, personal growth, teamwork, project vision, project management, problem-solving, and leadership skills. Students in the program are given an opportunity to voice their opinions and visions for the betterment of the school and the greater community.
Within the greater context of Leadership, students are invited and encouraged to contextualize their personal vision within specific Leadership groups at Victoria School including the: Arts Leadership Team, Black Students Association, Indigenous Cultural Hearts Club, Cafe Process Improvement Group, Queer-Straight Alliance, and the Victoria Voice Media Collective.
“Before I took financial management, I never really knew that much about the topic of money. But when I took class, I learned a lot, like personal financing, and the laws affecting how people earn and spend their money. We did some fun projects in the course, with my favourite being the stock market simulation project. This was my favourite project because we were getting fake money and we had to pretend to invest in real life companies like: Nike, Canadian Tire, and Under Armour. After we finished setting up our portfolios, we would monitor and reflect each week on how our stocks were performing and reasons why. Overall, I enjoyed going to financial management, and I strongly encourage it to anyone who wants to try the class.”
- Korbin, grade 10
"The customizable learning experience in financial management has let me grow my knowledge and experience in topics that will impact me in life after high school, with the support I needed to learn it."
- Tom, grade 12
"I really enjoyed the class discussions we had, plus some of the work was pretty interesting because it was like we were looking behind the scenes of the economy, but I loved the little lessons in class the most. The two most memorable are the difference between complementary and substitute goods, and how fiat currency replaced the gold standard."
- Kale, grade 10
Name: Rick Oldring
Email: rick.oldring@epsb.ca
Phone: 780-426-3010