Struggling with what classes to take in your Senior year? Don’t stress yourself out. Our electives spotlight will help you take full advantage of the amazing academic opportunities offered at Naz!

Many students may have heard of the Economics class, but few know more than that. Today, the Announcer Spotlight will look into this course and show you what it is truly about.

Economics is a one-semester course with a 0.5 credit offered to the seniors. Although the name  “Economics” may sound serious and professional, this course is actually far more than just insipid statistics, dry numbers and confusing terms. According to the instructor of this course, Mr. Anthony Gonzalez, Economics keeps a perfect balance between theory and real life application. “We study capitalism, but we study other economic systems as well; we talk about big terms like inflation, corporations, taxes and prices but we also learn personal finance, which is important to everybody’s financial management. So many high school students graduate with no knowledge of financial literacy, and it is creating massive debt situations in our country.”

Mr. G introduces his favorite class project in which he forces students to pretend they just graduated college and have entered the working-world. They earn $45,000 a year and are forced to move out, buy a car, and cover every cost of life, from grocery bills to utility bills to deoderant. He says it is a fun journey for the students to learn about the real world and see the value in saving and building credit.

Another cool project the students enjoy the most is building business models as entrepreneurs. In order to make it realistic, students are asked to build a business website, inventory their goods and services, hire employees and schedule them, 3D floorplan the business, design logo, and choose a location. “I find that students learn best when they apply the knowledge they are learning to real life, so every unit we study is paired with real life application,” says Mr. G.

Speaking of the expectation for this class, Mr. G says he can go on and on with this topic forever. “My number one goal is to spark curiosity. I want my students to understand that it is not about what you know, but what you do with what you know,” explains Mr. G. “Many people think that to be an entrepreneur means that you have to open a business, but on the contrary, being an entrepreneur is being an intrinsically motivated, creative, passionate, and a lifelong learner.”

When asked about the future of this class, Mr. G indicates he will continue to innovate, so one should never expect to take the same class that someone else did because he is always bringing in something new and enjoyable to students. “I am not going to tell you what the new things may be though, because I want you to enroll in order to find out!”