Marlborough has added 14 new courses for the 2021-22 school year to address student interests and offer a wider variety. While most of these courses are available only for 10th-12th graders, some of the new classes will be available for the middle school as well. The new course for the World Language Department is the Korean Language and Culture class and the Athletics and Physical Education Department will offer Yoga with the Energy Rainbow and Mustang Power Hour.
Marlborough’s Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation added Finance 101 as a new class offering for 10th-12th graders. Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Regina Rosi Mitchell was a part of the team that helped create the class. The course is taught by history instructor Josiah Cameron and focuses on preparing older students for the financial challenges that they will soon have to face as adults. The course has been in development for many years and is designed to address the financial side of entrepreneurship that was not deeply covered in any of the entrepreneurship classes.
“There were so many other fundamentals [in entrepreneurship] that we spent very little time on the finance piece,” Rosi Mitchell said.
Finance 101 was offered during the second semester of the 2019 school year. Due to low sign-ups, the course was not offered for the past two years but will be offered next year. Cameron plans to teach the material he used in the 2019 class as the students found it extremely valuable and were able to directly apply what they learned to their life.
“[One] student who worked part time at Starbucks took advantage of their generous retirement program and is thus already beginning to build wealth for later in life,” Cameron said.
Another new course being offered next year is Public Policy by the History and Social Sciences Department. This class is offered only for 10th-12th graders and will discuss how political and economic forces meet and shape society and its policies. The class is taught by history instructor Catherine Atwell. Public policy is a discussion and project-based class where students will conduct case studies depending on what they are interested in and what is happening in the news.
“We plan to survey students in the spring to find out what [they] are most interested in and then build the curriculum around student interests,” Atwell said.
The course also functions as a way for students to learn political and economic terminology to help them understand the policies being created by politicians. The course teaches students about skills they can use to help them engage in political discourse and have constructive conversations about difficult topics.
“[We will] explore ways that we can create space in classes and skills for students to engage in tough conversation on issues that are emotionally charged,” Atwell said.
