Interview with Mike Bernacchi and Paul Galbenski with America's Marketing High School
Announcer: Welcome to Inside Michigan Education, a weekly show featuring interviews with community leaders, school administrators, school business officials, and individuals, who are passionate about the future of Michigan education. And now, here is your host for Inside Michigan Education, Rob Huisingh.
Rob Huisingh: Welcome to Inside Michigan Education, joining us in the Foxbright Podcast Studio are Paul Galbenski and Mike Bernacchi of America's Marketing High School. America's Marketing High School is a nationwide online business marketing curriculum, which incorporates lectures, podcasts, and materials that bring the impact of marketing and advertising to life in our classrooms.
Welcome gentlemen, it's great to have you on the show.
Paul Galbenski: Rob, thank you very much for the opportunity, it's great to be here.
Mike Bernacchi: It's really an outstanding opportunity to explain what this program is all about, thanks again.
Rob Huisingh: Gentlemen, this is probably the first time that Inside Michigan Education has had two people as guests on your show, so thanks, as we are working through the technical process of this. But Paul and Mike, if you will, tell us a little bit about yourselves, and how you came to be involved in this project.
Paul Galbenski: Well, Rob we started this project about five years ago. I work as a high school instructor at Oakland Schools Technical Campus, Southeast, located in Royal Oak, Michigan. Professor Mike Bernacchi, my partner here, about five years ago, reached out and said, I would like to work with high school students and get them involved with the projects that they are doing currently at the University of Detroit Mercy.
With that, we started out partnership, and we are able to get involved with this particular program. It has certainly come a long way within the last five years, of what we have been able to offer; not only teachers, but more importantly, students in the classrooms; not only in the State of Michigan, but throughout the country.
Rob Huisingh: Mike, how about your background?
Mike Bernacchi: I am a professor of Marketing at the University of Detroit Mercy, 30 plus years, and I have been involved in evaluating the Super Bowl, and Super Bowl Ads forever more. It's a very exciting project by students who are involved originally, I wanted to get high school students involved, because it's part of their day to day living; the media and its exposure, and Paul was the way to do it.
I met him through a Detroit Free Press journalist, and began actually speaking in the classrooms, five, six years ago, and it has been an outstanding experience.
Rob Huisingh: Well, great. Paul, how about if you tell us, at kind of a high level view, what is the Americas Marketing High School?
Paul Galbenski: Well, America's Marketing High School, and myself being a high school instructor or teacher in the K-12 environment, provides the latest and greatest, and most contemporized information and data for our students and our faculty, but more importantly, not only are we building on that, but we also provide all of our teachers with teacher resource, curriculum guides, if you will, and we align them with all the national standards.
So our teachers, we are ready to go. If it's a podcast we are talking about, there is curriculum that goes with it. If it's one of Mike's video lecture modules that we have, we have curriculum that's ready to go with it. That's what I think is exciting, because it allows them to bring in what's happening here and now, not available in textbooks, from a standpoint of being relevant, and bring it right into the classroom as quick as possible.
Rob Huisingh: This is a topic that a lot people are quite interested in.
Paul Galbenski: Absolutely. I think when you can take a look at the current trends, when we can have a podcast dealing with the stimulus package that's out there. Mike, we have right now, we are getting ready to roll out the video lecture modules for the Olympics. So all of those things are happening as close to real time as possible, to provide the students with that information, as they are learning about marketing, about advertising, about economics, and its bringing it to a situation for them in a nice package, that can be rolled out through any classroom in the United States.
Rob Huisingh: Mike, tell us a little bit about, I know you are responsible for putting on some of these for some of the podcast, you do a lot of the information chunk, tell us a little bit about your background in there.
Mike Bernacchi: Yes. Well, as Paul mentioned, we have three major components, academic components. We have the modules, which are audiovisual in nature. We have the podcasts, which of course are just vocal, and by the way, we do those once a week, sometimes twice a week, and we turn them around -- we do them in midweek, we turn them around. There are teacher resource materials. What are they? Well, they are with what's going on, what's happening right now. We have a sequence of holidays; Father's Day, Mother's Day, Easter, Christmas, etcetera.
So we do that on a very regular basis, as well as back to school; we're ginning up for that right now.
The podcasts, strangely enough have really turned out to be our lead product. We never thought that, that was going to be the case, but it has turned out to be the case. I am going to act the mission, I wanted the module, with data, so we could teach America's high school students about the economy, about marketing, and do it all with numbers. We have been very successful with reference to putting on these modules, but the podcast really have grabbed the attention of folks, because they are weekly, and they are disposable; once you do them, it's done. Now, where can you get curricula that's right to the point, here and now.
The third component is under the microscope newsletters, which we do -- this is my 18th year of doing them, we do anywhere from 60-80 issues a year. Sometimes they make the podcast, sometimes they don't, but it's another resource material for what's going on.
For example, we just completed our Pre-Olympic issue, as the Olympics of course are starting on Friday, so we mean to be on time and right on the point.
Rob Huisingh: Oh great. Now, what is the cost for this curriculum?
Paul Galbenski: That's a great question Rob. Mike and I have been fortunate to speak at several conferences, business education conferences, and the nice thing about this particular project is there is no cost, zero. For any instructor, any high school teacher, that would like to use all of it, some of it, segmented in the order that they would like to, for their classroom, that best fits their needs, but there is no cost for this, and I think what's really unique about that --
Mike Bernacchi: What was that cost Paul?
Paul Galbenski: Again as I said Mike, there is no cost for this particular project, which -- that's very important. Mike and I, as we work on this as co-coordinators for the project; I work at the high school level, Mike obviously providing things from the university level, and that's a question we get right away, because right away people want to know, how do I get involved? We are excited about it. I want my students involved, how much is the cost? When we are able to come back and say, it's free. Boy, do eyes light up.
Mike Bernacchi: Paul, what was the cost?
Paul Galbenski: So obviously that's one thing that we really enjoy, being able to provide for teachers and faculty across the United States.
Rob Huisingh: Now, assuming that -- I noticed that your materials are being offered, at least the podcasts are being offered through iTunes, through the MyLearningPortal. The rest of the materials I am assuming are available through your website?
Paul Galbenski: Absolutely, and we are still working on putting the video lectures through the conversion process to be part of the iTunes, YouLearning platform or MyLearning, which we are just ecstatic to be a part of. There are the 30 podcasts that we did last year that are available. There are 15 video lecture modules that are currently being converted, so that those are available as well.
Then we do have our website, americasmarketinghighschool.org, where all of this information is available for teachers to register, gain access to the materials, as well as the teacher resource guides that are available for them as well.
I think one unique piece to this whole project is the people that are involved, and I would like to, if we could explore that, we certainly have a situation where we have a secondary situation; K12, I am representing that with open schools. We have a postsecondary partner, with University of Detroit Mercy, which is represented by Professor Mike Bernacchi. Then the third component there is our corporate or our business partner, Immersive Engineering. Chris Bien and Mike Kelly are two individuals from that organization. That they provide the website so that all of our teachers and students have access to our curriculum.
So I think it's a unique piece, as we look in today's day of education, where we have secondary, postsecondary, and business in industry, all working together to provide students with the best available and latest information, that they then can use in their classrooms and then beyond.
Rob Huisingh: Well, let's take the Olympics, as a sort of area for us to focus on. Looking forward Mike, how do you intend to use the Olympics as a way to teach our students about marketing?
Mike Bernacchi: Well, a key to the development of what we do is using numbers really as that point of catapult. It's very important, because to look at, for example, to look at the Olympics in terms of what's happened in recent years with reference to TV rights; how much have they cost NBC? What are their revenues? How the Olympics has changed in terms of other worldwide radio and TV rights, and what that contributes in terms of a cost basis and revenue basis, because as we know, as the auto industry knows, as everybody in the world knows, this is now a global marketplace.
The marketplace for the Olympics frankly has changed as well. While the games have always been global, I am sorry, the revenues and the broadcast rights have almost, always been U.S. based. Well, that's not like that anymore. Over the last three or four Summer Olympics, it's 50% now is from the U.S., and the other 50% throughout the world.
So that's changing it, and changing as the world changes. The idea of our program is to present the global and domestic marketplace. Here we are using the Olympics, we are using Olympic numbers. We are going to talk about the fact that there is three billion dollars in advertising revenue that are going to be generated from these particular Olympics. I mean that is absolutely amazing, when you take a look at the notion of how this Olympics happened. So we use the numbers, the dollars and cents, really to teach about the Olympics.
Rob Huisingh: So from the K-12 perspective, how would you see teachers utilizing the Olympics and the program that you are putting together here?
Paul Galbenski: Well, certainly as across the United States people are gearing up to go back to school, and we here in Michigan obviously have a start that will be in September, but when we take a look at these particular modules; whether we are dealing with the podcast, whether we are dealing with the video lecture, I think what it really allows our teachers to do is get a here and now, current event, if you will.
Obviously, the Olympics is going to be a piece, some schools will be in school; depending on whether located throughout the country, and that will be probably one of the first materials that they may utilize to kickoff the school year.
Someone like myself, and my classroom, when we get back up and running in September, we certainly then will be a topic that we will start with, saying look, this just occurred, it just ended.
Let's look at some of these numbers. Let's look at the impact that it's having on China, on where the Olympics are being hosted for this year.
So it really gives us a great opportunity to take things that are happening in the news, apply it to marketing, apply it to advertising, apply the economic impact to it, and give our students a real eyeopener of, hey, this is what's happening, it's here and now. That's how I see the program being utilized throughout the country, with all of the faculty and students that have participated in the past. Those that are joining us, much about learning and through this program, by you having us here today and so we hope to continue to spread the word about this particular project called America's Marketing High School.
Rob Huisingh: Now Paul, the predominant audience that's listening to this particular show is comprised of Superintendents, Secondary School Principals, Business Officials, and in particular, folks that are right here in Michigan, and having to do with K-12 education. Speaking to that audience, who would you be directing this information to, to say, hey, I would pass this information along to these teachers, so that they could understand what it is that we are offering?
Paul Galbenski: Well, certainly one of the key components would be all of your business, your marketing, your advertising, your media teachers that they have at the K-12 district.
So a Principal, if I had an opportunity to sit down and speak with him or her, regarding our project, those are the first people that I would approach with saying, this is something you need to look at. Here's the website. Take some time to investigate it. I think that's important.
But over the time that this has evolved, we have also had the mathematical department, we have had some people that teach statistics, that were involved with this, and that leads us into, well, how did they get involved? They got involved because they were dealing with our Super Bowl component. Sometimes as we take a look at this, we kind of tag the Super Bowl guys. But as all marketing and business knows, there's always an anchor or a cornerstone to a business, where they started, and we were able to have some of the students that were involved in statistics classes looking at various components related to the Super Bowl.
So really, it's an opportunity for all teachers, if they are interested, to become involved with it, and use the various podcasts or the materials that are available.
Yes, definitely, heavy on marketing, advertising, economics, but certainly the numbers are there and applicable to a wide variety of subject matter for those teachers.
Rob Huisingh: Mike, you kind of started this off, from what I understand, having to do with the Super Bowl. Talk to us about that.
Mike Bernacchi: Yeah. This project did start, as regarded the Super Bowl, involving my students, involving eventually high school students; that was always my hope to involve high school students, because you have to excite kids in education, and it's my humble experience that the best way to do that is not with dust, but with something that's now, that's going on, that's happening.
It turns out of course, the Super Bowl, God, love it, it happens every year, and it gins as much excitement and enthusiasm and involvement as you could possibly have.
So we started this, getting kids involved in the high school, in 2005, when the Super Bowl was in Detroit as a matter of fact. I wanted to do it beforehand, it didn't happen beforehand.
Paul Galbenski came into my life because of a contact with the Free Press, I think as we mentioned, so we are up, up, and away.
But what we found out is, after the Super Bowl experience, that perhaps there are other ways that we could branch off and develop. Sure enough, as it turned out, we were able quickly to go into the general worlds of the global and domestic economy, marketing experiences, because what we do here in the U.S. is not the only thing, there are folks throughout the rest of the world. I mean, there is 6.7 billion people on the planet earth right now. We just have 300+ million people in the U.S., and at some point in time, we are not as egocentric as it were, and we realize as the rest of the world.
So to be able to teach, what I call relativism in the classroom, that is the U.S. versus the rest of the world; what's going on, paints a very interesting tapestry. I am convinced; you can paint a great story with numbers and explain it, as opposed to just blah, blah, blah. So that's what we have tried to do, and we have been fortunate, we have been successful so far.
Rob Huisingh: If you would like to learn more about America's Marketing High School, you can contact Paul Galbenski of Oakland Schools in the Technical Campus, the Southeast, at (248) 288-4236; again that telephone number is (248) 288-4236. The website is also available at www.americasmarketinghighschool.org; again that's www.americasmarketinghighschool.org.
Do you have a story or something interesting that concerns Michigan education, if you do, we invite you to send us your thoughts. You can find us online at www.insidemieducation.com; again that's www.insidemieducation.com. Until next week, this is Rob Huisingh with Inside Michigan Education.
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