Leeann Curry doesn’t use textbooks and barely gives tests. Instead, her students participate in real-world activities, such as simulating a coffee shop or creating a resort for a target market. 

Curry, a career technical education teacher at Owyhee High School, emphasizes practices to expose students to the challenges and rewards of running a business. 

Curry’s approach to teaching mirrors her own path: She draws from real-world business experience. She’s even bringing lessons from her part-time job at a Boise coffee shop back to her students.

“I want to see my students apply what they learned and put it into practice,” Curry said.

From business owner to teacher

Curry’s professional experience shapes her teaching. While raising kids, she owned a food service brokerage with her husband for five years and obtained an accounting certificate. 

She was the Nampa School District’s program and education supervisor from 2017 to 2023 and then a bookkeeper at the Owyhee district from 2024-25. 

But as the daughter of former teachers in the Boise School District, she was drawn to the classroom.

“It was something I wanted to do,” Curry said of teaching. 

She did not have a traditional teaching certificate but received a three-year CTE certification through a state program designed for industry professionals who want to teach in areas like residential construction and welding. 

Despite her work experience, running a classroom brought new hurdles.

“You’re dealing with 120 different personalities,” Curry said. “Finding a classroom management style and lesson planning was the most challenging for me.”

Curry’s course load includes business essentials, management and ownership courses for students in all high school grades.

Learning by doing

Curry found her freshman students especially eager to participate.

“So many of them are just starting out, either looking for their first job or maybe starting their first business,” Curry said. “They were the most talkative and super engaged.” 

She teaches freshmen students workplace expectations for the first few weeks of the Business Essentials course, which sharpens life skills, such as communication, time management and goal setting.

Students then dive into resume building and careers. The big project for freshmen is creating a target market, with objectives that include: 

• Creating the ideal customer and a customer persona
• Branding and marketing
• Appealing to a target market

In the Business Management class, Curry has the sophomores and juniors simulate a coffee shop. Some tasks include inventory, ordering, customer service and marketing. She also touches on hiring and firing. 

“It’s a fun, low-key way for them to see what it’s like to start and manage a business,” Curry said. “What kid has not gone into a Dutch Bros or Starbucks?” 

Curry also works part-time at Java coffee shop in downtown Boise with her daughter.

“I live downtown, so it’s awesome to be able to walk down there, visit with people and not make a big commitment,” Curry said. “Even though summer break is awesome, I just like being busy.”

Curry hopes to incorporate her new job at Java into future Business Management classes by having students work at the coffee shop as part of their project.

Meanwhile, seniors who have completed her other classes can take the Business Ownership capstone and start their own business in the fall. Students in the course create business, marketing and financial plans. An exhibit, set up like a science fair, allows district office employees and business owners to assess projects.

A lesson beyond the classroom

Nora Lindke, a graduate of Owyhee High School, took Curry’s Business Ownership class last school year.

She created a bakery business for the capstone project and gave cookies and cupcakes to those she presented to.

She credits Curry for helping with a business plan and setting her up for her studies at Boise State University. 

“I was able to use the experiences to actually land an internship for the summer before my freshman year of college,” Lindke said. 

And if things like an internship don’t pan out, it’s OK, Curry said. She wants her students to know most entrepreneurs fail at some point.

“I always tell them, when you walk out of this class at the end of the semester, you’re not going to have all the answers,” Curry said. “I want you to know how to find the answers.”