It is safe to say within the past quarter students at Westside High School have been bombarded with opportunities to purchase a variety of unique Westside gear, attend special spirit events and donate both cans and money to causes spanning across the board. These events, donations and gear all come from two sources: Marketing two or Entrepreneurship projects.

In Marketing two and Entrepreneurship Westside seniors are asked to get into groups and think of a project they can work together on to make profit, however this is where the similarities end.

Marketing two instructor Sarah Schau discussed the priorities of the marketing projects.

“We want kids to be able to plan, organize, implement and finish a task,” Schau said. The entire point is that they can be a part of something from start to finish, whether they fail or not.”

While most Marketing two projects are community serviced based and focus on the students getting to be a part of something bigger than themselves, Entrepreneurship projects teach students the ropes of planning, earning and tracking cash flow when opening a new business.

“We wanted to make it as realistic of a business as possible,” said Entrepreneurship instructor Jeanette Kleppinger. “We decided to allow students to actually open a business. We allow students to keep 85% of the profits to make it realistic as possible.”

In contrast to the Entrepreneurship project, proceeds from the Marketing two projects find their way to different places.

“We always donate a lot to our local charities — our district’s food bank, the coat drive for local kids,” Schau said. “We have also done breast cancer. But students get to completely pick, it goes with their interest and changes every year.”

Each class has different goals and aspects, however students find that they receive similar benefits from taking the classes.

“In each class we get to learn how to work together, handle money and fail successfully,” said Entrepreneurship and Marketing two student Emily Dietrich. “It is a lot of work, but it is worth it because you get to see your hard work pay off in real time.”