Vinyl Heat Press with components

School:: Lorenzo Walker Technical High School
Subject:: Entrepreneurship
Teacher:: Ted (Stephen) Coine
Students Impacted:: 12
Grade:: 9-12
Date:: September 12, 2022

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

Paul Pacter Fund - $295.00

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 12

SphereX Cricut Champions Outcomes

This project was a rousing success. It benefitted my entire class, as well as bringing nature-inspired designs on T-shirts and stickers to numerous customers, both student and adult.

The two students at the head of the project, called SphereX, were David and Elijah, both juniors. Unfortunately, Elijah moved to Jacksonville at the end of the fall semester. David kept on, however, drawing his designs in his sketchbook, scanning them with an app on his phone, and printing them onto T-shirts using the Cricut tools this grant allowed us to buy.

David learned all about running a business, from marketing and finance to law and management, based on his hands-on experience making and selling T-shirts and stickers. In addition to his own designs, he also made some batches of customer-designed shirts for an adult small business owner to sell on his website, and he made another batch of shirts for some teachers to wear during their school’s exam week. This taught him the ins and outs of what is called “white labeling.” These were instructive for the entire class, especially as we discussed the differences in scaling, profit margins, and the like between the business-to-business and business-to-customer sales David was making.

Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.

grant photo

Elijah and David with early design

grant photo

SphereX David with shirts and Cricut

Original Grant Overview

Goal

Students in this hands-on program learn improved creativity, innovation, problem-solving, opportunity recognition, bookkeeping, finance, economics, business math, presentation skills, working effectively in teams, goal setting and goal achievement, communication skills in spoken and written forms, overcoming obstacles, recognizing need to change course and making a creative plan to do so, business fundamentals, and law.

What will be done with my students

One of my class businesses seeks to sell nature-inspired designs on T-shirts, tote bags, thermoses, and similar items. With this heat press bundle, they will be able to apply their ongoing market research to solve the real-world needs of their customers.

Inspired by the flora of the Naples Botanical Garden, my students have created unique designs. They are deep into the customer survey phase of their business now and have identified several designs that their fellow students would like to buy as T-shirts. They are already taking pre-orders. With the Cricut equipment, they will fulfill those orders and reinvest payment to fund their next round of sales.

Benefits to my students

This process of design - sell - learn - design better has been working wonders for my students for going on six years now. Selling to fellow students, then to the general public, allows them to learn marketing, operations, and finance skills they will need for the rest of their lives as business owners or as leaders within organizations. The actual producing and selling part of this program makes entrepreneurship tangible for them. Lorenzo teams won three out of 4 end-of-year competitions last year, including placing second AND third at the FGCU Challenge. They're doing something right.

Budget Narrative

With this money, we will order the bundle immediately. The $295 includes sales tax as well as shipping and handling.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Cricut Bundle	$295.00
	Total:	$295.00

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