In Bradley Neubauer’s entrepreneurship class, students learn how to properly run a successful business. All work is independent, and students have the chance to make real money through selling the products that they have designed.

On March 13, students began to sell the products that they have created to Naperville Central’s student body. These products are sold in various places around the school and to some specified target markets.

The entrepreneurship class is not run in a traditional style. Very little time spent in the class is used for lecturing; instead, students work together in teams to collaborate in order to generate the most profit for their product.

“They’re policing themselves,” Neubauer said. “I remain hands off as best as I can unless there are big problems.”

Marketing the product is crucial to the student’s success for sales of their products. Hawk Hats is an example of one of the products being sold. It is a baseball cap featuring a redhawk on the front.

“We do different sales promotions to try and get our products around,” Janelle Skinner, a junior and the CEO of Hawk Hats said. “We recently did [a sales promotion] to see how many people could retweet in order to win a free hat.”

Learning about the money aspect of entrepreneurship is a key lesson taught in the class. In order to learn about how to make a profit, the students must fund their own companies. They first have to get investors to invest in their company, but some portion can be funded by themselves.

Another product being sold are Hawk Sockets, a device placed on your phone so it can be used for an easier grip.

“The aspect of real life application, such as creating your own business, doing that in a school class makes it more interesting,” said Brendan Ross, a senior and the CEO of Hawk Sockets.

At the end of the semester, if they have a profit from their product, they are first required to pay 10 percent to a program at Naperville Central, but the rest they get to keep.

The class continues to grow in popularity among students at Central. Last year, 44 students were enrolled in the two class periods that were offered, but due to the popularity of the class, there are now 61 students enrolled in three class periods.

The entrepreneurship class still remains a favorite among business classes for its ability to teach students about the real life skills required to run a business and make their own living.