Ms. Kendall White – We’re only open on Wednesdays. We set up during B Block and run it during Community Block which is right after B Block. Then the students have to get it cleaned up, usually there’s another class in here, they have to get it cleaned up in about 15 minutes. It’s great for our students because there’s not any shifts where we’re not having to problem solve something. To the degree that I can, with my normal class before the seniors left, one of them would take turns managing the shop for the week. Each of them during the semester would have to do every single job and have to rotate through it and then learn what their strengths were, how to do that particular job and then they could choose what they liked the best. And usually they would do that job for the rest of the semester. One person would have to manage it every week and they learned a lot. My big push was, ‘When you’re managing, you’re managing. It’s not about you doing a task.’ The students would love to do tasks and not tell other students what to do. There’s a lot of learning in that. Weekly, they did the financials. They would manage financials of what every single item costs, what the expenses are, and then we would figure out on the spreadsheet what the profit or loss was for the week. That’s by specific item. They’re learning finances, they’re learning how to deal with customers, and they’re learning how to problem solve. Most of them say that the biggest thing they take away is how critical communication is.

Nick – In the class, it’s perfectly designed that we meet every Wednesday in the community block so that we have time to set up and get everything situated for Sip O’ Som. Sip O’ Som is directly after this block class. During that class we have a spreadsheet and there’s different roles assigned to different people. Some people will be on cold brew or making the lemonade or the tea. Some people will obviously be setting up the cake pops. We usually get shipments from our provider, Amy from Daisy Pops. It’s basically just a time to prepare for the actual Sip O’ Som.

Ms. Kendall White – We have a partnership with a cake pop company, Daisy Pops out of Kent. It is a woman-owned business. The place we get our drinks is Fig Leaf Coffee, we partnered with him, another small business. He gets his coffee from small farms in different countries through free trade.

Ms. Kendall White – The coffee shop’s intent was to really support small local businesses to the degree that we could and to have the products be high quality. On a regular day, we are selling 10 to 20 dozen cake pops in less than 45 minutes.

Ms. Kendall White – There is an evolution from how much the teacher is directing and doing as the shop progresses to where students are doing more and more and more. I own my own consulting business and what I found at first is I was too tough. I was expecting way too much out of students that have never done any of these jobs. If they’ve had a job where they’ve been a hostess or they’ve been a server, they’ve managed customer relations and things like that. Many of these students have not had these jobs. It’s knowing that there’s going to be this evolution and to start out with the end in mind to make it a sustainable thing. We now have this class where each semester the assignments have changed. The first semester, their assignments were the actual tasks: make cold brew, do this, do that. Then, the end paper was a reflection of what they’ve learned. Then it was: make instructions for the next semester. Then it was to make a manual. As it’s progressed, this semester the students made an online manual. They didn’t create all of that. They made the fancy looking manual but the students from the previous semester made that manual in black and white.

Ms. Kendall White – In both entrepreneurial classes that we do here, students are building life skills throughout the semester. It could be communication skills, it could be building their network or community now during high school. It could be learning financials. They’re learning about basic profit and loss. They’re also pushed on mindset and that the choices you make have consequences. The foundational mindset is the power to choose. With a focus predominantly being on your attitude of choice.

Nick – The biggest thing I’ve learned working at Sip O’ Som is how everyone’s role is so crucial to the success of Sip O’ Som. I’ve learned the importance of communication. Our class had nine or ten people in it. We had a group chat so that whenever something happened like if someone had to leave school early and they would have to make the cold brew for that class then we would talk in the group chat and someone would say, ‘I can step up and do it.’ We had one time where something late after school happened and we couldn’t get the cold brew done in time and it was a learning curve.

Ms. Kendall White – For high school students, what I have found is that they’re really struggling. I don’t know if it’s post-COVID but they’re really struggling with confidence. They have to get up and announce in front of their peers that the shop is open, what we’re offering, etcetera and that has been frightening for them but as the semester goes on they’ll reach out to me and say ‘That was the greatest thing I’ve ever done because it builds my confidence.’

Nick – I think going into something like this, obviously it’s going to be a little daunting going in, but I think you have to understand that there’s a learning curve for everyone. We just had a recap with some of the graduating seniors that worked at Sip O’ Som and the biggest thing that we said is that at the beginning of the semester we didn’t know what we were doing. Go into it knowing that everyone is in the same boat as you guys, you are going to learn and work together and get a system down pat.

Nick – I think this year has been amazing. I learned so many skills. Taking the prerequisite for this class and learning the business mindset – you kind of think that some of the things you learn about a business is managing your time, it’s so trivial and you have to do that but taking this class showed me the importance and how much thought goes into running a student run business.