Guiding students to pursue their careers in the business field, the Student Apprentice Club applies their entrepreneurial skills in real world projects. It’s currently made up of students ranging from grade 6 to 12.
It was first created by De’Nesha James, a Holub Middle School English Language Arts teacher, in October 2011.
“Anyone can be taught to write and read, but when you can take what you have learned and make it applicable to the real world, you have learned something that reaches beyond the simplicity of obtaining a ‘good’ grade or passing a test,” she said.
The Student Apprentice goal is to help students in discovering a variety of college and career paths.
Student Apprentice runs its organization like a business including the expos, symposiums, conferences, and educational-based events. And like any other company, the organization is made up of members who take on the roles of accounting, marketing, advertising, and management.
Freshman Tiffany Nguyen, who is a chief executive officer of Student Apprentice, says how the club gives her opportunities to make new relationships.
“I enjoy that we can get together with the other members who go to different schools,” she said. “That way, we can meet new people and see old friends.”
Student Apprentice participates in a variety of activities, including monthly outings to have fun and meet everyone in the club.
“The Student Apprentice hosts an annual event called the Dream Expo, where company and university spokespeople come to talk to students about what it’s like to be in each particular field of study or work,” Nguyen said.
When the Student Apprentice club first started, they had to work hard to expand because they had started with a small group of students from James’s fourth period English Language Arts class who brought up the idea. The Student Apprentice clubs have now expanded to other high schools in Alief, but remains only at Holub out of all the other middle schools.
Currently the officers of this club are appointed to students from different high schools in Alief. The officers from Kerr are: Nguyen as CEO, freshman Jason Nguyen as chief financial officer, freshmen Daisy Cruz and Serra Vu as secretaries, freshman Tanly Le as information technology officer, freshman Hiral Mistry as grant writer, freshman Khang Nguyen as linguistics officer, and freshman Henry Reyes as assistant.
To find more information about this club, visit the website, thestudentapprentice.org
