DCSD Students are preparing for careers in accounting and finance with the Accounting and Financial Services CTE Program. CTE students who follow this pathway learn the principals of accounting, basic transactions, interactive online accounting software and more! With the help of passionate instructors, these students receive foundational knowledge of introductory business courses and get a leg up when applying for jobs and colleges.
Accounting and Finance CTE instructor Meredith Schwartzlose isn’t a stranger to Davenport Schools. She graduated from Davenport West and returned to teach in the district twelve years ago.
“In my junior year [of high school], I took my first accounting class and just absolutely loved it; loved my teacher. And that is what made me go into business education,” Mrs. Schwartzlose says.
She’s now sharing that passion and desire to learn with her students.
"It was nice to come back as a teacher, being a former student, and exploring that new role within the district,” she says.
What You’ll Learn
The Accounting and Financial Services CTE Program offers students a variety of learning opportunities. Students get to . . .
- discover how to achieve personal wealth and financial freedom using the stock market and proven investment strategies
- use professional software applications and interactive simulations to apply key strategies in both personal and corporate situations
- assess a company's financial condition to recommend critical practices for sound financial management
Along with practical transferable skills, students who complete the pathway get to work with a small group of like-minded students. Those experiences teach them how to work with others and perfect their soft skills. Students also gain college credits at Scott Community College to help them save time and money when pursuing higher education. In addition, this CTE program has numerous real-world applications, helping students take advantage of their high school experience to prepare for their future.
Senior Ashley Thiessen says participating in the Accounting and Finance CTE program “can help you figure out where you want to go in the future. But accounting in general can help you with so many things throughout life.”
How to Get There
Each of Davenports CTE programs has a recommended sequence of courses to take over four years.
Students can request the courses when they plan their schedules or join a CTE Program and have these automatically loaded into their Campus Planner. Find out more about joining a CTE Program by visiting the How Do I Sign Up? page!
Check out the Davenport Schools Course Guide for a full description of each course in the sequence.
Looking Ahead
Mrs. Schwartzlose says DCSD is looking to expand this program by working with local businesses to develop accounting apprenticeships to provide students with real-world experiences in accounting.
“Next year, we will have at least one internship,” she says. “We are working on a second internship. For one of them, the student will be doing the accounts payable [for a local business] and that is going to start this summer. Next year, she will be going to that business, working as an intern for part of her school day. The end all be all for our students in these programs is to establish a network of businesses and to give kids exposure to ‘this is what an accountant does’ in the manufacturing industry or the banking industry. Any accounting exposure we can give these kids is our end goal.”
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