Starting the 2015-2016 school year, students will be able to take four new classes. These classes include Entrepreneurial Studies, Financial Literacy, US History Post 1945, and TV Production 2.

Athletic director Larry Dukes will be stepping down from this position to teach Entrepreneurial Studies and Financial Literacy as part of the new FLEX Program. Social Studies teacher Anthony Del Puppo will be teaching US History Post 1945, and Fine Arts and Social Studies teacher Bob Schick will be teaching TV Production 2.

Dukes presented his idea for the program to President Richard O’Hara a couple of years ago.

“It was just a matter of right timing and interest to add the new classes. These types of classes have been growing across the country, but mainly in college levels. I wanted to be able to take it to a high school level,” Dukes said.

According to Dukes, Entrepreneurial Studies will enable students to define the entrepreneurial process and the impact it has around the world presently. In this class, students will create a financial plan to understand financing.

Students in Entrepreneurial Studies will be duly enrolled with Harford Community College along with JC. This course will earn students 6 college credits towards most colleges.

“This class is very similar to an AP class. The main difference is that students have to pass the class to earn the 6 credits instead of passing the AP test which students take at the end of the year,” Dukes said.

Financial Literacy is a course to teach students how money works and how to manage it responsibly. According to the course description, the course encourages students to become informed and prepares managers of financial resources both personally and professionally.

“I believe every student should get the opportunity to take at least one semester of a personal finance class,” Dukes said.

Next year, Dukes will teach seniors while social studies teacher Jacob Hollin will teach sophomores. This ensures that all students will be able to take a course of personal finance if they choose to do to so.

TV Production 2 is a “trial run” according to Schick.

“It’s just a trial run, if we get great results then we’ll have a following year and maybe each semester,” Schick said.

He first brought the idea up to the administration the fall of this current school year. He credits one of his TV Production classes last year for encouraging him to go farther.

“I had a terrific class a year ago. [They were] very excited about it, and they wanted to go to the next level,” Schick said.

Schick’s goal for the class is to put out more content including more newscasts and in-depth stories.

US History Post 1945 is described as new course for students “who wish to go further in their study of historical events, personalities, and themes in post WWII America.”

According to Del Puppo, the course is an elective course for students who recently took US History or would like to learn more about history. It will study the time period of 1945 to 2010, as well as current topics in American society.

Sydney Kirwan is an In-Depth Editor and Eleanor Werneke is a Lifestyles Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.org