Can business education be actually interesting for high school students?
Well, yes. If you build a curriculum based on…
…the speeches and writings of
…and designed by a faculty of
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WBRG is a business literacy program dedicated to educating high school students on the basics of business, finance, leadership, and ethics based on the philosophy of Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger.
WBRG (World of Business Reading Group) is a fun way to learn more about the world of business and finance through one of the greatest teachers the world has ever seen: Warren Buffett.
Over the course of 7 weeks, you will read some of his speeches and writings and unpack them together as a group. It’s a reading group for business with a guided set of easy to understand materials: Shareholder Letters from Buffett, videos, and articles. And bonus: it’s led by outstanding faculty.
It’s also a great way to connect with other students who are interested in learning more about money, finance, business, and ethical leadership.
Best of all, you will find Buffett is funnier than you thought, wiser than you imagined, and more approachable than you dreamed. The program is built to be fun and challenging and the instructors are experienced business executives. You will love it!
Finally – we know it’s good because we have iterated and tested this curriculum over the last four years with 60 classes and more than 600 students.
The verdict?
You work hard, learn something, and even really like it (as you can see from the testimonials).
Most of the credit for that goes to Warren Buffett – his Shareholder Letters represent some of the best writing and thinking on business ever written. (Why high school students today should learn from this business leader born before television and TikTok).
And credit certainly also goes to our volunteer faculty – experienced business executives most with Harvard MBAs.
The curriculum is good too.
We have developed a 120-page student guide made up of short essays and questions that the teachers have developed over the last four years (with lots of testing and input from the students).
The reading is great, the questions are good, the classroom is Zoom-based and the teachers are distinguished executives.
What’s not to like?
The live Zoom-based summer course runs for seven weeks, founded by graduates of the Harvard Business School, and taught live by a faculty of experienced executives.
The seven weeks are divided into two parts based on the two questions Buffett thinks every student should understand:
The Course
① What is a good company, economically?
Week 1: Introduction to Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger and to companies like Apple and American Express
Week 2: Key Principles of Buffett’s Philosophy
Week 3: Economic Moats, Creative Destruction, and the Economic Engine of Berkshire Hathaway
② How does the stock market operate?
Week 4: The Dotcom Bubble and Buffett’s Famous 1999 Speech at the Summer Camp for Billionaires
Week 5: The Great Financial Crisis and Noah’s Rule (HBO Documentary, Charlie Munger Video)
Week 6: The Pandemic, Meme Stocks, SPACs and Charlie Munger
Week 7: Final session with a review of key themes, Q&A, and special guest speakers.
What to Expect
Each week students read a Warren Buffet shareholder letter, speech, or watch a movie, and prepare answers – all part of an extensive curriculum designed and tested with more than 500 students over the last five years.
Don’t worry. This is all doable. And you do not need to be a genius (as Buffett himself says over and over).
Further, the way we run makes it easy for everyone to participate.
Students spend about two hours of reading each week, then one hour of question preparation (they are each assigned one question each week ahead of time). Then students attend a live Zoom session with about 12 fellow students (students are assigned sections that they remain in so they get to know each other) and taught by an experienced senior executive. Each of the seven live sessions run in a modified version of the HBS case study method, where each student presents answers to pre-assigned questions.
Every student speaks every week – this is part of the magic.
Sign up to be notified when enrollment opens in February, 2025. The cost is $399 and we have scholarships available.
500+ Students
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5 Years Running
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500+ Students ☞ 5 Years Running ☞
The Benefits of WBRG
The WBRG program is both demanding and accessible, fun and serious, and, importantly, influences the level of motivation students have to learn more about business… and about everything else (see testimonials).
⭑ Motivation to Learn and Excel
⭑ Impact on College and Career
⭑ Exposure to Warren Buffett/Charlie Munger and teachers who are accomplished executives
⭑ Knowledge
⭑ Empowerment
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Our Story
Founded by a group of Harvard Business School alums in finance and tech, WBRG first began as a pandemic era program providing live instruction to high school students at home because of lockdowns.
The program was so successful – and so well received — that we have now iterated the curriculum with more than 500 students over the past four years and are launching it nationwide.
Students can sign-up through this website, receive it through free programs with nonprofits and public schools, which serve large numbers of students eligible for federal lunch programs, and, separately, via our partnerships with financial institutions like LPL Financial (read more about the LPL Financial partnership).
The program is a pro-bono effort and 100% of the money from registration in our public program, and from sponsors like LPL Financial and Collaborative Gain, goes to develop and expand the program. All faculty are volunteers.