For these KCK students at Schlagle, entrepreneurship is more than a concept in a book
Everyone should have an opportunity to experience employment as a high school scholar. Often, exceptional students with disabilities or special needs are overseen for this opportunity.
Even when it’s unintentional, it’s a disservice to ignore exceptional scholars as potential adolescent employees in our community because of the urgency to teach core classes relevant to their success once they graduate. Like affluent scholars who work jobs during their high school careers, underprivileged students should have the chance to gain employment experience as well.
F.L. Schlagle High School in Kansas City, Kansas, has a plan. It aims to employ exceptional scholars during the school year at a safe place to learn about essential business skills relevant to establishing an adult livelihood. For Schlagle educator Kelly Graham, the equitable opportunities students find in the school’s Business and Marketing Social Club — the B&MS Club — mean these promising young minds get to learn about entrepreneurship. That helps the whole community offer competitive opportunities to its residents.
Like the meager beginnings of an old-time five-and-dime store, Schlagle’s B&MS Club began selling low-priced food and beverages to students and staff during the three lunch periods on March 1, from a makeshift learn-in-shop store set up in the halls. Through this class project, scholars come to understand about margin analysis, cost analysis and business plan development, all while they develop real-life skills and responsibilities.
The B&MS Club’s mission is to teach entrepreneurial skills to minority youths in economically challenged neighborhoods.. The class project on merchandising operates throughout the school year as part of the marketing curriculum. How to open the student shop while inaugurating low pricing was part of the assignment.
According to Schlagle teacher Kelly Graham, the goal is for students to transition from selling their wares on tables outside the cafeteria to operating an official establishment inside the school, similar to bookstores found on college campuses.
The B&MS Club’s merchandising has received raving reviews from Schlagle community participants. Eric Martinez, a senior scholar who will attend Johnson County Community College in the fall, said: “The learning experience gained from merchandising at the tables has mirrored real-life business experiences such as operating a franchised eatery.”
Jayleen Bennett, a senior who will attend Kansas City Kansas Community College in August, believes he has learned “life applications concerning money and marketing.”
Dianacamila Luna Alarcon, a freshman scholar at F. L. Schlagle High School, has made purchases from the B&MS Club tables, finds the prices “more than reasonable since all items cost $1.”
Aniya White, a freshman, visits the tables bi-weekly. “I prefer purchasing items from the tables because the exchange of business is quick so that I can attend my classes on time before my appointed lunch period,” she said.
The B&MS Club’s merchandising experience is ideal for most exceptional scholars. These outstanding students get a chance to participate in an adolescent rite of passage that gains them employment experience while introducing them to the global economy as young entrepreneurs. It’s a model that schools around the country would be wise to adopt.