Like Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Wolf of Wall Street," students in the Depauwoffice Winter Term course are learning the importance of competition and marketing in the business world.
DePauwoffice is a business marketing simulation game in which the object is simply to "sell" the most of a given product, and prizes are awarded at the end of each day, in addition to an overall winner being chosen at the end of the duration of the course.
"I feel as if my class is a road to "The Wolf of Wall Street" movie. I expect my knowledge of stock and business to propel me to levels of controversial riches," said sophomore Jon Good.
Students in DePauwoffice are split up into teams with whom they decide every aspect of their product.
"You choose the price, you choose how much to spend on advertising and that determines what you sell. Based on what you sell you do accounting," said ï¬rst-year Michael McGrath.
Each team's simulated product, speciï¬cally handheld electronics, is put on the market and sold. Whichever team sells the most on any given day may win a prize for the day, as well as enhance their overall standing in the competition.
Students also learn the ethics of business practices, international trade and environmental aspects of production and labor negotiations. As the course progresses, students will learn how to work the stock market and try to increase their group's income in that way as well.
McGrath commented on the beneï¬cial team building aspect of the course.
"Group meetings are fairly informal. You basically learn to work as a team," said McGrath. "At least for my group we each have a different task and then we check each other. Two people do each task so we have a check on each other."
DePauwo!ce o#ers students an opportunity to learn the skills of a potentially chancy profession in a risk free and hands on way, and the lessons students take away from the course will beneï¬t future business owners. Instead of winning huge amounts of money, DePauwoffice students have won many small prizes such as DePauw coffee mugs, pens and DePauw apparel.
"So far basics to accounting is what I've gotten out of the class, which is good to know," said McGrath.
Without the risk of losing actual money, students learn how to manage ï¬nances as well as how to stay relevant in the market.