BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — When Hiram Bonet ducks out of class at noon and heads for the Mall of America, he's not skipping school to shop or ride the roller coaster at the seven-acre amusement park.

His trip is legit. The 17-year-old is learning business skills from the experts--those who run the nation's largest enclosed shopping mall and entertainment complex.

Bonet, a junior at Bloomington's Kennedy High School, is one of 15 students enrolled in a course in entrepreneurship and business at the mall's new learning center.

"They are pursuing career interests and getting a flavor of what it's like," said Jerry Cromer-Poire, a social studies teacher from St. Paul Central High School who teaches the pilot course. "We're not involved in flipping hamburgers."

Students spend mornings in regular classes at their home schools, then go to the mall for classes and internships with businesses Monday through Thursday afternoons.

For Cromer-Poire's students, internships can be as varied as the 400-plus businesses in the mall.

A student interested in sports medicine works at a sports equipment store. A student considering a career in jewelry-making works at a jewelry store. Others help manage restaurants, sell clothes and recycle.

The center opened in January and plans by next fall to offer several courses to about 100 students from five districts.

Each class will have a real-world partner. The pilot class is being offered with the mall's developers and operations staff.

An environmental issues class will get help from Browning-Ferris Industries, which collects and recycles the mall's garbage. An arts in the marketplace class will work with the Camp Snoopy amusement park in the middle of the mall, which offers plays and musical performances along with its rides.

The concept of taking business classes at the mall isn't much different from taking other specialized classes at vocational-technical schools or taking zoology classes at the zoo, Cromer-Poire said.

"This is an opportunity to go in at management level. The idea of making decisions, of getting involved in change, is very important," he said.

That has captured the imagination of Bonet, who is interning with operations--the people who run the mall.

"I just wanted a broad-based view of what it takes to run the Mall of America," said Bonet, who plans to major in business in college. After that, he says, he may go into business law. "What areas of business, I wasn't sure. That's why I took this class."