The high school’s Career and Technical Education Entrepreneurship program plans to open a school-based enterprise next school year, allowing students to learn more about starting and running a business.
According to Business Teacher Ms. Jamie Emery-Seibert, the program operated a school store in the 1990s and sold t-shirts in the early 2000s. Both operations ended when the teachers who operated them retired, she added.
The Entrepreneurship program has been searching for a school-based enterprise for students to learn more about starting and running a business, according to Ms. Emery-Seibert.
“We felt that actually starting a business, a school-based enterprise, would be a good way to incorporate coursework into action,” said Business Teacher Mr. Michael O’Connor.
The program considered running a coffee cart or smoothie bar, but the start-up cost was too high, added Ms. Emery-Seibert.
When the Makerspace Academy, a non-profit organization in Milton, donated surplus equipment to the school, the Entrepreneurship program decided to start their business using the donations, according to Ms. Emery-Seibert. She added that the donated equipment included two Cricut machines, two t-shirt presses, one mug press and two carts.
Many of the 15 students in the Entrepreneurship program do not yet know how to run the new equipment, so the program is “starting at ground zero,” said Ms. Emery-Seibert.
The Entrepreneurship class will be involved in building the business and coming up with ideas for a logo and business name, added Ms. Emery-Seibert. The business concept will stay the same, but will evolve and grow throughout the years, she explained.
According to Ms. Emery-Seibert, when the business is set up and ready to start, the program will take orders for custom mugs, hats and t-shirts for clubs or gifts. She added that any profit will be used for purchasing supplies in addition to “field trips, equipment, software, etc. that may be needed in the Entrepreneurship program of study.”
