With a passion for business, Nitya Bollam, junior, was excited to learn the district would be offering Advanced Placement Business with Personal Finance for the 2026-2027 school year.
“I thought this would be a good opportunity to get more into the subject of business and finance,” Bollam said.
AP Business with Personal Finance is a new, year-long course about the different disciplines of business and finance, and their applications in the real world, according to the College Board.
AP Business and Personal Finance does not require any prerequisites, can be taken by juniors and seniors only, and counts toward the personal finance graduation requirement.
Bollam competes in the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), a student organization that prepares students for careers in business. Last year, she competed in Community Giving, which helped her gain team management and problem-solving skills, while her event this year, Accounting Applications, helped her learn business-related math and accounting skills.
“I was successful in both, but I do really want to learn more about all areas of business, so this class would probably be perfect for that,” Bollam said.
Crystal Strate, business teacher, has noticed an increase in the number of students majoring in business.
Because most current business classes are semester-long, Strate said basic business principles are taught, but not as in-depth as teachers would like to go.
“With a year-long class, it allows us to dive deeper into some of the business principles that will be useful for anyone going into business, and it could even guide them into choosing what area of business they want to study,” Strate said.
Strate said that while current business classes do a few different simulations to apply learned concepts to the real world, the AP Business with Personal Finance will primarily focus on applying business concepts to real-world situations.
“The course is intended to be more project-based so that students can apply the concepts they learn to real life, which is different than some AP classes,” Strate said. “We will review basic concepts of business and finance, but it’s really all just projects.”
As of Tuesday, April 7, Strate will be the only teacher instructing AP Business with Personal Finance next year.
Juli Welker, A+ and testing coordinator, said the teachers will be required to attend an AP Summer Institute to prepare for the course.
As of Tuesday, April 21, 67 students have requested AP Business with Personal Finance, and 21 students have requested the course as an alternative course request. Welker said there will tentatively be three sections of AP Business with Personal Finance next year.
“I wonder if most of the students taking the course would be what I call my veteran AP students, the ones who take so many AP courses, or will it be students who haven’t taken an AP class before and want that opportunity?” Welker said. “Next year is really going to be a learning year.”
