These Grads Mean Business

Their Career and College Pathways experiences in Business and Entrepreneurship shaped their steps after high school. Now, grads Max Horn, Catherine Nguyen, Brian Perez and Keyara Fiadjigbe are blazing career paths in fields they love.

Business and Entrepreneurship is one of three Career and College Pathways at Spring Lake Park High School. Each pathway represents a predicted need for future jobs. Through 37 courses across the three pathways, students gain real-world experience as they develop skills within a field and explore career options.

Through their pathways experiences in high school, these four graduates have each found their unique future path. Max is videographer working in the NFL. Catherine is designing medical devices to improve lives. Brian is helping students find their college fit. Keyara is building her own baking business as a full-time student. Each have taken their own lessons from their high school experience.

Max Horn, Class of 2020, NFL videographer

Through his Business Administration pathways course, Max worked with local businesses

doing marketing. Then, during his senior year internship at the National Sports Center, Max did photography, video, and writing and producing content for the website and social media.

At the University of Minnesota, Max worked for Gopher Digital Productions and started doing sports videography for the football and basketball teams. That experience led him to his current internship in Chicago working as an NFL videographer.

As a videographer for the NFL no two days are alike. On game days, he shoots and edits hype videos for social media and videos for the arena as well as content for a variety of channels. On a game day, it's more about going to the stadium to film the game and making those highlight packages.

“Every day is a new challenge, something new to maneuver, a new problem to figure out. I think that's something that really attracted me to the field,” says Max.

Max’s internship will conclude in June. As he looks at other roles, he’s at an advantage.

“Being able to say that I've been doing sports marketing and videography for six years - and being only a year out of college - is a big deal,” he says. “A lot of people weren't able to start doing stuff like this in their junior year of high school. When you're looking at the years of experience you need for all these jobs, I think it's a real leg up to be able to say I've been doing this for a long time.”

When he reflects on his high school experiences, he’s not sure he would have branched out and tried these things if he didn't have those changes in high school to just see what he liked and see what stuck.

“You can never get your foot in the door too early,” he says. “Trying something out of your comfort zone is always going to deliver dividends whether now or in six years when you're looking back at the experiences you've had. My advice is to just get comfortable with being uncomfortable and make sure that you're pushing yourself and getting the most out of the opportunities that are given to you.”

Catherine Nguyen, Class of 2020, design researcher

Catherine took the Marketing and Entrepreneurship class her junior year. Then, she had an

internship at Medtronic as a senior and discovered a passion for medical device work. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in business marketing education and took an associate buyer role at Target.

Just recently, Catherine found her way back to the medical device world through a role as a design researcher at Inspire Medical Systems. She works in product development, on the user experience and human-centered design team.

“I go out in the field and conduct ethnographic research to really understand who our customer is, what they go through, what they're looking for in a specific product, and then how we can help,” says Catherine.

Catherine works as a key partner in distilling all the insights she gathers from those interviews and presents recommendations for device engineers and leadership.

“I think the work I’m doing now at Inspire is really fulfilling,” she says. “Medical devices have such an impact on people, and I'm very passionate about being able to impact something as important as quality of life.”

Her pathways experience really shaped her perception of learning in general and how learning can be applied in the real work. Much of what she learned in high school applies to her career today.

“We learned about a project charter in that class,” she says. “I apply those skills in my career now. The overall course and the structure of how everything was laid out was very impactful and something that applies in the real world.”

When Catherine thinks about her experiences, she sees how attitude and mindset matter. 

“My advice to students is to not assume everything is super corny. Honestly, I thought – oh my, this is going to be a corny course about business,” she says. “It was probably one of the most valuable courses I took. My advice is to have a really open mindset. Don’t be embarrassed about putting in all of your effort, because it'll pay off.”

Brian Perez-Cortez, Class of 2020, college admissions counselor

Brian took the Marketing and Entrepreneurship class his junior year and that course laid the

foundation. It sparked his interest to continue studying and learning about business and communications. After high school, Brian attended Hamline University and graduated with a degree in Communication Studies.

Brian returned to Hamline as part of the admissions staff and works as an undergraduate admissions counselor. In his role, he interacts with a lot of students who are first generation college students and don’t always know how to navigate the whole college search.

“I'm very thankful that I'm able to work with those students because it was a very similar experience for me being first generation and a student of color,” says Brian. “I'm thankful that I can help students who are in a similar position to what I was in.”

Brian credits his pathways experience with preparing him for college and professional life.

“It was definitely more of a discussion as opposed to being lecture based. It wasn't a raise your hand and wait to be called on class,” he says. “It was speak whatever comes to mind, and then it just opened up the dialogue. It really taught me about professionalism and how to communicate. That helped prepare me for working with people now professionally.”

Keyara Fiadjigbe, Class of 2023, college student and entrepreneur

The Marketing and Entrepreneurship class laid the groundwork for Keyara to study graphic design, do freelance design work and start her own baking business. Keyara is in school for graphic design and marketing at Concordia University St. Paul with aspiration to go into some form of design work.

Through her pathways experience she had the opportunity to make a business brand from scratch and market it.

“That whole experience was very eye opening,” she says. “It showed me how difficult it can be and how tedious - how much time it takes to even pick out something like a brand name not to mention all the financials.”

All of that insight has come in handy as Keyara launched a freelance graphic design business, LaCleConcepts. She also recently started her own baking business – Cakes by K.

“I created my brand guidelines and the marketing strategies. I am doing cupcake taste tests to find what people like. I’m doing a lot of prototyping right now,” she says. “Running a business is not easy. It takes a lot of time and money. I had to get certified to be able to sell to people. It's a lot of steps.”

The marketing aspect of her pathways experience has been the most important.

I went into college already knowing a lot about how to run a business. I took a college business class and it was kind of a refresher for me. It was good to come into college with that knowledge. Keyara Fiadjigbe

Keyara is an at-home baker. Her orders come through online inquiries and customers can pick up or she will deliver.

“Right now, I like making mini cakes, Bento box cakes, and cupcakes. Baking and graphic design are both really big passions for me. They are things I actually want to do,” she says. “I keep pushing myself, and I'm putting in the time and work even though I'm in college.”

She recommends Business and Entrepreneurship courses for anyone who wants to own a business or go into marketing or communications.

“You get down all the basic knowledge and you can use it in the future whether you decide to go to college or not,” she says.

The Business and Entrepreneurship pathway at Spring Lake Park High School is one of three Career and College Pathways that represent a predicted need for future jobs. Pathways courses offer a variety of ways for students to explore careers, gain hands-on experience, and often, earn college credit.