EFEB
Potomac’s Economics, Finance, Entrepreneurship, & Business Concentration (EFEB)The Economics, Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Business concentration is designed to provide interested students an opportunity to deepen their knowledge and understanding of economic and business issues through coursework, individual research, and/or hands-on experience. Rising juniors with a demonstrated interest in and a passion for exploring business through the lens of economics and entrepreneurship can enroll using an expression of interest form.
Students enrolled in EFEB take a minimum of three semester electives, at least one of which must be taken junior year.
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In addition to coursework completed during the school year, EFEB students undertake four weeks of summer work following junior year. They have two options:
1) a research project with a designated mentor; or
2) an approved practicum involving (a) a business internship, (b) work experience, or (c) volunteer work.
The culmination of their participation in EFEB is a Senior Capstone Project, which is completed during May of senior year and which relates to the themes explored in EFEB coursework and/or summer experience. Students present their capstone project at a showcase exhibition with invited guests in early June.
IT'S A CROSSOVER!
What do sharks, incubators, seed money, and design thinking have in common? They can all be found on Potomac’s campus in the popular Upper School elective Entrepreneurship and Innovation! The interdisciplinary, inquiry-based class is taught by Director of Public Speaking Harry Strong and Director of Technology and Innovation Sean Developing an Entrepreneurial Spirit Moran, who introduce the students to the fundamentals of design thinking, project management, financial modeling, prototyping, and marketing.
The Economics, Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Business (EFEB) Concentration hosted its third speaker of the school year with a visit by Potomac parent, Sarah Murphy Gray, PhD. Sarah is a Senior Program Manager at Google Cloud, and the head of their Responsible AI team. In her talk entitled "From Cleveland to Cloud: My Journey to AI Safety at Google," Dr. Gray described her academic and professional journey, where she developed a passion for public policy and solving complex problems. Dr. Gray joined Google as they were building their ethical AI team. The team's focus is to "break" Google's AI models, meaning identifying where the outputs may be contrary to Google's ethical values (e.g., harmful or violent), where gaps exist, and which use cases should be allowed or not allowed. It was a very interactive session with the Upper School EFEB students who asked about such challenges as selling AI to government agencies and ethical dilemmas. Dr. Gray shared that there is a friction point between speed and safety for AI service providers. She also shared her perspective that, with respect to the future impacts of agentic AI, humans are more efficient (i.e., use less energy) and generally better at making decisions; thus, the ultimate question will be which decisions remain for humans versus machines.
The Economics, Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Business (EFEB) Concentration hosted its second speaker of the school year with a visit by Potomac parent, Daron Hines. Mr. Hines currently serves as President of Staples Promotional Products (SPP), a wholly owned division of Staples, Inc. and a leading distributor within the promotional products industry. In his talk entitled "Brand Love...Creating a Lasting Impression," Mr. Hines discussed marketing as a broad ecosystem with the goal of influencing a customer to make a decision and demonstrating lifetime value. He discussed the various customers of Staples, and the business to business division he runs of branded merchandise. The branded merchandise is intended to deliver an experience, with the goal of brands themselves to solve problems and create joy. SPP serves 20% of the Fortune 500 companies and operates under the philosophy of Built Better, Together, which includes minimal environmental footprints, meaningful supply chains, and strong customer service.
![Entrepreneurship Class Gets Ready for the Sharks]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1762969109/potomac/psxoqe6eydu2kqpc8pfs/driphouse.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1762969109/potomac/psxoqe6eydu2kqpc8pfs/driphouse.jpg","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_3/v1762969109/potomac/psxoqe6eydu2kqpc8pfs/driphouse.jpg","width":800},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_4/v1762969109/potomac/psxoqe6eydu2kqpc8pfs/driphouse.jpg","width":1200},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_5/v1762969109/potomac/psxoqe6eydu2kqpc8pfs/driphouse.jpg","width":1600},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_6/v1762969109/potomac/psxoqe6eydu2kqpc8pfs/driphouse.jpg","width":2200}])
Innovation comes alive in the EFEB concentration's Entrepreneurship and Innovation class. The course is project-driven, with twelve student teams across three sections working to develop and prototype an innovative product ready for market launch. The semester peaks in a crucial, half-hour "Shark Tank" event, where project teams face scrutiny from our panel of "Sharks" on every aspect of their business plan, from product and marketing to finance. Sean Moran, Harry Strong, and Ryan Levesque co-teach the classes. Pictured are Mateo Nichols '27, Lawson Watt '27, and Dasha Minsky '26 working on their sauce recipes for their company Drip House.