The W. P. Carey School of Business and Marcos de Niza High school in Tempe are preparing to launch a business magnet high school in January 2011.
The specialized public business school hopes to draw about 100 new students to prepare to study the subject in college, potentially at ASU. Registration for the Marcos Business Academy first opened this month.
At the 1,900-student high school, Principal Frank Mirizio was looking for a way to attract more students to his school. After researching magnet schools, Mirizio and other faculty members gave a presentation to W. P. Carey administrators in July.
“We had no idea what was coming,” said Tim Desch, assistant dean of undergraduate admissions at W. P. Carey.
But Desch and other administrators were sold on the idea and agreed to move forward with the academy a week later.
Graduating eighth graders and high school students from all over the Valley are eligible to register at the school. Students will take several business classes throughout their time at the school and participate in the national business club Distributive Education Clubs of America, or DECA.
Seniors will take an economics class during the fall of their senior year and an ASU macroeconomics class with other W. P. Carey students in the spring semester.
Finance junior Scott Turner, president of the W. P. Carey club Business Ambassadors, said the magnet program is a step in the right direction.
“High school students are ready to take courses beyond their grade level and this is a great way for them to get ahead,” he said.
Mirizio said he hopes to recruit 80 to 100 new students for the school.
ASU professors will work with teachers at Marcos de Niza to set up the curriculum for the courses.
The classes will serve as an introduction for students who later choose to attend W. P. Carey, Desch said.
“The transition would be seamless,” he said.
Students will attend seminars, complete business internships, be mentored by W. P. Carey students and attend panels with current ASU students, Desch said.
“Engineering, math, science and arts have a lot of magnet programs. Business is rare,” he said. “There’s no downside to this partnership.”
Students who succeed in the program and meet the requirements for the Carey school will be ahead of others when they begin at ASU, Desch said.
“One outcome is that they are so comfortable and motivated that they’d want to finish their college degrees with us,” he said.
Reach the reporter at mpareval@asu.edu
