By JEREMY APPEL on June 13, 2019.
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
Students across the Prairie Rose School Division will have the ability to put their entrepreneurial skills into practice with the opening of Badlands Cre8tions – a store that will sell products made by them.
Jason Deuchscherer, the vice principal of Eagle Butte who is helping make the store a reality, says the “Back to Business” class at Eagle Butte will be the main operators of the store, although any PRSD student can contribute if they have an idea.
“The purpose of the class is to give students the opportunity to create high-quality work and to learn how to become an entrepreneur and run their own business,” he explained.
Eagle Butte students are learning how to operate the store through a partnership with the entrepreneurship program at Medicine Hat College.
In addition to the brick-and-mortar store in Dunmore, which has a grand opening slated for September, customers will be able to purchase products on its website, which is still in development.
“It gives them the opportunity to learn how a retail store runs,” said Deuchscherer. “They can physically work the store, they can physically make the product, they can go out and market the product.”
The store offers a wide array of items, all made by PRSD students. Eagle Butte has a laser engraver, which allows the students to take their product design to the next level.
“The sky’s the limit,” Deuscherer said. “Anything that can be engraved, anything that can be made in a shop class, food class, design classes, artwork.”
Profits made through selling the items will return to the students who made them, he added.
The name of the store was selected by PRSD students in a survey sent out to each school in the division.
Grade 12 Eagle Butte student Aaron Taylor, 18, is working on his budding career as a video game developer.
He told the News working on the store has provided him with the requisite skills to get his business up and running upon graduation.
“I’m setting up as soon as I get out of high school,” said Taylor. “This class has really been a big help in terms of making sure I have a quality product, business integrity and setting realistic goals for that business in the future.”
Although video game development is quite different from selling homemade goods, Taylor said what he’s learned through the class “can be applied to almost anything.”
“Being able to treat people with respect no matter what, even if customers aren’t as nice as we’d like them to be,” is an important skill for any line of work, he said.
Taylor has designed many of the products in the store, from a swear jar to dog treats and spices, as well as the store’s aesthetics, such as its shelving and ensuring everything is organized appropriately.
He’ll be setting up a Kickstarter later in the summer to procure funding for his video game business.
[…] I have to give an early shout out to my kids who have created their own magnet business. There’s a story to how this all came about…in the summer my kids started making magnets here at home…I thought you can never have too many cute funky magnets, but apparently you can…my kids really got into this magnet making stuff & Cache one day said how he wanted to set up “like a lemonade stand that sells magnets.” The only problem is that we live out of town & have a total of 3 neighbors so I had to unfortunately burst his bubble. In September I received an email from our school district that they were looking for entrepreneurial students to sell arts, crafts, projects, etc. Cache & Mabel jumped all over this idea & got real busy making magnets. The product they’re making is functional, made with good quality magnets & has unique designs & quirky magnet names all created & made by them! They will be the youngest entrepreneurs selling product through the store, which is really inspiring. The store Badlands Cre8tions is to go live in December so stay tuned for Wags Mags! For now, I’ve attached a link to a news article written about the store. https://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2019/06/13/new-store-will-feature-items-created-by-prsd-… […]