Grace High School gets down to Business

Bill Van Dyke’s Business classes at Grace High School stand apart from other classes in at least one important respect—unlike most classes, they turn a profit.  The class’s brand, Grizzly Gear, has been producing products for individuals and businesses over the last year or so, and in the process has learned about many aspects of the professional world through a unique hands-on classroom environment.  

Grizzly Gear uses a series of machines, originally purchased with a grant from the Grace Education Foundation, to create custom products including hats, cutting boards, spoons, and now, tumblers.  Several local businesses also helped the group get off the ground.  Cami and Jeremy Taggart of Crafty Little You, for example, provided invaluable help with learning how the machines operate, having successfully run a woodcraft business using them. “The community really did step up to help us get launched,” Van Dyke says. “It was huge, because the machines were a big initial investment.”  The machines use laser etching to cut designs into various media, but the final product is only one part of the complex process.

The class divides up the product line process into various teams, focusing on aspects of Supply Chain, Finance, Design, Sales, Marketing, Production, and Customer Service.  Considering that the class at present is composed of five students, multiple hats are not just something they produce, but an organizational model.  During the afternoon, the students move around the room working on a range of concurrent issues in various stages of completion.  Alex Owens works on setting up the new tumbler etching rotary machine, while Jody Carpenter researches the machine specs online, Aleaha Medina works on assembling an order of hats with adhesive metal logos and Gentrie Carpenter checks the designs.  As the hour progresses, they all move throughout the room assisting one another with different parts of the process.  Lorrin Tingey, the other student in the class, was unavailable on Monday, but it was mentioned more than once that she would be consulted later on different topics.

As part of the BPA (Business Professionals of America), several members of the class will be attending the national convention this year in Chicago.  The trip itself is the largest cost of the year for the group, and it occurred to Van Dyke that his Business classes might provide a way to make activities like the trip self-sustaining.  In the past, students had performed a variety of tasks throughout the year such as raking leaves, but he wanted to try something more consistent.  “This is a small community, and it’s amazing at supporting the school.  But there is such a thing as donor fatigue, and it’s a lot to put on a small community.  I talked to my kids and asked ‘hey, could we just launch a business?’

As a result, Van Dyke came up with a dual mission for the class—one goal was to give the kids real, hands-on experience, “so it’s not just theories and textbook learning.  They’re actually doing it, seeing it and experiencing it.  They have real-life situations come up they have to make decisions about.”  The students in the class strongly agreed with the success of that first goal.  “I love the class,” Alex Owens says.  “It’s definitely one of the more beneficial classes I’ve ever had.”  Gentrie Carpenter agrees, “It’s cool to see the process of how a business works, and to get to know what some of the possibilities are.”

The second mission for the class is “to totally self-fund BPA and potentially other programs.”  So far, the second mission has also been a massive success.  Each semester of the class tracks its own profit-loss accounts, and to date, the margin has only grown to the positive.  While specific accounting was not available, it’s accurate to suggest that the class has been generating enough in revenue to continue to sustain its operations, and is growing at a steady rate.  

Education across the country is always in a process of evolving according to the economic climate and business realities that confront graduating students, and the model created by Grace’s Business classes reflects a growing orientation toward practical workforce training.  Idaho’s LAUNCH program, which provides funding to students pursuing in-demand career training, is one sign of that shift.  State funds allocated to career and technical instruction have also helped to supplement the program in various ways.

For Van Dyke’s students, the course design fits nicely with their plans for the future.   

Alex Owens plans to go on to a technical school in Meridian after graduation and the BPA Nationals.  Gentrie and Jody Carpenter come from a family that runs several businesses, and both of them plan to continue that tradition.  Aleaha Medina plans to pursue a career in finance at present.  Some of them plan to attend conventional four-year programs, while others plan to enter the business world through other routes, whether technical programs or direct immersion. In any case, the course has provided them with valuable experience as they look forward to wherever their paths take them, and given them confidence in the process.

And while the theoretical elements of the business world are important, nothing can replace the experience of the work itself in a collaborative environment.  “It’s very student-run.  You’re not only getting experience, but it’s also the bonding,” Medina says.  “It’s a small class, and we spend a lot of time with each other.”   As the class period draws to a close, there is a palpable sense that no one is in a real hurry to leave, and will be happy to pick it back up tomorrow when they clock back in. 

Orders and communication with Grizzly Gear can be made to the email address [email protected], and Bill Van Dyke can be contacted at Grace High School for more information on the program.