Girls School Gets Down To Business

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Becca Samuelson isn’t working in her student store for some extra spending cash. The 17-year-old high school senior is looking to gain the kind of experience that will help vault her to a company boardroom in the future.

She’s one of hundreds of students with similar dreams who attend Archer School for Girls, a Brentwood school aimed at grooming sixth- through 12th-grade girls to become powerful business and social leaders.

“We are keenly aware of the dearth of women in high-level business positions and leadership roles, and it’s our special responsibility to graduate girls who are confident, courageous and have an entrepreneurial spirit,” said Elizabeth English, Archer’s head of school.

The all-girls school on Sunset Boulevard offers a business skills-oriented curriculum, with emphasis on science and math, and extracurricular activities that allow girls real-life experience running a small business: the student store, an art gallery and a film festival.

Samuelson joined the fully student-operated student store as a deli worker and moved her way up to chief operating officer. She said the school curriculum and work experience, which included ordering stock and creating a line-item budget, helped her identify a high-level position in the non-profit industry as a career goal.

“It really pushed me in that direction,” she said. “I got more interested in math and humanities and saw the two really come together in business.”

But the business skills aren’t only applicable to traditional industries. Archer also provides an art gallery that is curated and operated by the students, who have managed to secure shows from artists such as actor Leonard Nimoy. Its film and TV program puts on a film festival, also operated and curated by the students.

Senior Catherine Bergin, 18, said that program has provided her fuel to pursue a career as a television writer.

“It’s taught me you need to be well-rounded,” she said. “You can’t say, ‘I want to be a writer’ and not know anything else. So it’s given me the confidence to know I can do more.”

English said it’s important that the students learn more than just what it takes to be successful in their careers. A varying portion of profits from the extracurricular endeavors goes to support a scholarship for the school, which has an annual tuition of $35,000.

“The girls are learning about the art of business and philanthropy,” she said.

– Jacquelyn Ryan