SD High Academy of Finance Awarded Again

The Academy of Finance at the San Diego High School of Business has again been recognized again as a Distinguished Academy by the National Academy Foundation, a program that brings businesses and educators together to put students on a career path leading to Wall Street.

This is the second consecutive year that the program has been recognized by the Foundation. San Diego High's program is the only high school awarded west of Raleigh, NC.

"This award shows the continued commitment of our students, teachers, advisory board and business partners to the learning going on at the Academy of Finance," said Principal Consuelo Manriquez. "National recognition of the Academy certainly will help our students as they apply for admission to America's best universities."

The San Diego High program involves the local business community in the school. Students take internships at a variety of businesses. In addition, the academy's Advisory Board members mentor students as they become part of the business community.

San Diego's Omni Hotel, developer LWP Group, the San Diego Humane Society, the Boys and Girls Club of San Diego and skateboard lifestyle company Tum Yeto are just a few of the companies that have interns from the Academy. While there, students can visit multiple departments; for example, at the Omni, students have had tours in the accounting, room services, housekeeping and security departments.

One of the particular features of the San Diego High program praised by the National Academy Foundation is its Advisory Board, which includes many local business people, ranging from chair Jim Fitzgerald, a retired San Diego State University finance professor, to Cliff Schmidt, a Morgan Stanley Smith Barney official who has served since the Board was formed in 1998.

The Class of 2012 graduates will be heading off to four-year colleges, including UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University and San Jose State University. Previous graduates are now at San Diego State University, University of San Diego, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine and Cal Poly.

Academies affiliated with the National Academy Foundation educate more than 60,000 students around the nation in fields that include finance, hospitality and tourism, and engineering.

If you'd like to get your business involved in the San Diego High School of Business's Academy of Finance, call Kelly Granfield at (619) 525-7461 or kgranfield@sandi.net.