Interested in business, economics, entrepreneurship, or last but not least, finance? If so, there’s a new club just for that at the high school.

In the past couple of months, Alex Tjoelker ‘24, Max Fechtner ‘24, and Ben Ruppert ‘24 founded the BEEF club, standing for business, economics, entrepreneurship, and finance. The club is currently advised by Adam Horos. A strong motivation for the club comes from a class many East students are familiar with. 

“Some of our inspiration came from AP Macroeconomics with Horos,” Fechtner says.

Another big reason for this club is because of the lack of a business club at East Grand Rapids, a pathway many students choose to go down.

“We started the club to bring a more business and financial-oriented feel to a high school level because really when you hear about business at a high school level you don’t see a lot of actual financial or analytical aspects of it, you see more other types of business and very basic level type stuff,” Tjoelker said.

In the club, they plan to participate in more complex business ideas, similar to business competitions that occur in various colleges and universities.

“There’s a college competition where college students make teams and they’re given a business problem and are tasked to solve it. Maybe your business isn’t making enough money or maybe there’s a change in popularity with something and you have to come up with an idea to solve it, and then you present your solution to judges and you get scores, and Alex would like to bring that to the high school level. You get divided into teams, get a problem, and then spend a couple of weeks brainstorming a solution, and then you present it and then you get assessed,” Horos says.

At the high school level, students won’t necessarily go to competitions, it is still competition based. 

“We really dive deep into financial and analytical details of business and work together to solve out ways to answer these hard-answered questions,” Tjoelker adds. 

To join the club, there are no requirements, and everyone is welcome to join. 

“You don’t have to have any expertise, you should just come and have fun. It’s something good to try with your friends and see if you have good business ideas. It’s a pretty lowkey, easy learning environment for everyone. If you’re interested in business, this is right up your alley. Even if you’re not and you want to see what business stuff is like, I think it’s a great way to dip your toe into the pool,” Horos concludes.

Overall, the BEEF club is a great way to get started for people that enjoy the topics and would like to challenge themselves or learn ways to solve business-related problems. The club is currently meeting every other Monday. Make sure to follow their Instagram @egr_beef to hear more updates on the club!