Teaching Tomorrow’s Decision-Makers: How Experiential Economics Shapes The Entrepreneurial Experience at Culver

The economics course at Culver Academies gives students far more than a traditional introduction to supply and demand. It immerses them in the decision-making frameworks that shape how individuals, businesses and nations allocate scarce resources—skills that matter whether a student becomes an entrepreneur, a policymaker or simply a thoughtful consumer.

“Economics is really the study of scarcity,” senior instructor Lizziey Sherk said. “Every day we face trade-offs. Our goal is to help students understand how to evaluate those trade-offs with clarity—how to use data, incentives, and real-world context to make better decisions.”

The one-term course, offered multiple times each year through The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur, typically attracts juniors and seniors, but is open to all.

“Students like the class because they immediately see the relevance,” Sherk said. “They become more sophisticated consumers of news. By the end of our eight weeks together many students are reading- and understanding- major news publications on their own.”

Economics that elevates daily habits

That relevance shows up in students’ daily lives at Culver, a leadership-focused boarding school.
Taylor Wagoner ’26 said the course transformed how she engages with current events. She began reading online newspapers during the term and now regularly follows The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist.

The Rubin School purchases digital access to The Wall Street Journal and The Economist for all students.

“I realized I needed to understand what was happening in the world,” she said. “Economics gave me the tools to do that.”

The course’s interactive structure is part of what keeps students engaged. Wagoner recalled simulations where students ran fictional businesses and had to respond to changing economic conditions—rising input costs, shifts in interest rates, or new competitors.

“You’re not just memorizing terms,” she said. “You’re making decisions and seeing the consequences. It was fun.”

Learning by doing—and debating

Adam Trumble ’26 said the hands-on approach helped him internalize concepts that once felt abstract.

“We’d work in small groups and build supply-and-demand graphs together,” he said. “Everyone had to contribute and defend their reasoning. It made the ideas click.”

Sherk said that’s intentional.  “When students can connect a headline to an economic model they experienced in class, they suddenly understand the world in a new way,” Sherk said.

Wagoner agreed. “I’d heard of supply and demand, but I’d never really thought about how it works. When you see shortages or rising prices, it finally makes sense.”

From macro principles to entrepreneurial practice

The class begins with an introduction to microeconomics--the study of how individual firms make choices. Students dive into market structures and cost structures by creating fictional companies. They analyze fixed and variable costs, calculate per-unit costs and build income statements. Students engage in a project where they design a business and build out its financials using Excel. Students are asked to make predictions in their chosen market based on the theories of supply and demand they’ve learned earlier in the course.

The course culminates in an introduction to the three main drivers of macroeconomic policy—sustainable growth, stable prices, and low unemployment. Students learn how the Federal Reserve influences interest rates, how banks function, and how opportunity costs shape every choice.

For Trumble, those connections were eye-opening.
“It gave me a broad sense of how the world works, especially in the United States,” he said.

Economics for every future

Sherk stresses that economics is not just for aspiring financiers.

“Scientists, military officers, researchers—everyone works with limited resources,” she said. “No matter your field, you need to understand how your industry can best use your limited resources to accomplish your goals. At its core, economics is about disciplined decision-making.”

For Trumble, the course confirmed his plan to major in economics at the College of the Holy Cross. Wagoner said it strengthened her interest in finance. Both recommend the class enthusiastically.

“I think it’s one of the most important classes at Culver,” Trumble said. “It helps you understand how things actually work.”

Wagoner added that the course has helped her across her academic schedule.
“As a senior, so many classes connect back to economics,” she said.

Sherk hopes students leave with one lasting insight: every decision has a cost and a benefit.

“If students can slow down, ask the right questions, and evaluate trade-offs, they’ll make better choices—whether they’re starting a business, choosing a college, or navigating their personal lives,” she said.