By any measure – time, equipment, projects – the entrepreneur program at Windsor Central High School is expanding.

“It’s new because everything is running. We have complete hands-on practical application, a hands-on lab. Instead of just learning in the classroom, we take a business plan and put it into action,” said WCHS Business teacher Mary Jo Wardell.

Students have the time to work in and out of the classroom because the class meets in a double-mod session, spending much of their time in the library or STEAM area, in the presence of new technology to help their ideas come to life, such as a laser engraver and 3D printer.

This technology is allowing students to create businesses around t-shirt and car sticker design and production, in addition to the group’s traditional management of the Blue Stone Café.

“We have the time to take an idea and finish within the constraints that make it timely. For example, t-shirts for homecoming,” said Ms. Wardell.

Students learn a successful business is more than just a good idea. From inception to design to execution, students work through the different roles of an enterprise.

“We’re going to start rotating around jobs and build our own business and explore what it’s like,” said WCHS student Kimberly Wentzell who, along with classmate Ella Peterson, is designing t-shirts.

“It’s not necessarily the path I want to take. I think when I was choosing classes last year, I took an interest because I wanted to know what it’s like to run your own business and manage your own money,” said Peterson.

Those are lessons students can apply to other business pursuits.

“My big brother has a landscaping business that he might pass down to me when he gets too old to run it. A business degree might help if that happens,” said WCHS student Christian Rogers.

“When I get out of high school, maybe I’ll take a business class in college and start my own business,” said Wentzell.

Ms. Wardell would like to add a computer lab to the entrepreneurial program so that design could stay in-house as well. No matter what tools students use, they’re learning there are unexpected benefits to being an entrepreneur.

“To see what it’s like and to make the products as well is cool. I never would have experienced this outside of school. I can just walk out in the hallway and see a t-shirt I designed,” said Peterson.