My Retail class, in the Business Academy at Farrington High School, will be working to create a store on campus. This year, we have been working with our Engineering Academy to come up with designs for the store. The business academy students have also done market research as to what the community would like in the store. The students next year will take the plans created this year, and make it a reality. This will benefit the students because they are gaining collaboration and communication skills as they develop the ideas and create the store with the other academies. This will also benefit the community because in our store we will supply spirit items. Farrington High School has a strong alumni base, and we hope that this will provide an opportunity for our community and alumni to continue purchasing merchandise that will support Farrington and continue bringing our Kalihi community together.
The store will also provide our students with the opportunity to gain employability skills. They will learn time management, customer service, communication, punctuality, responsibility and much more. This will help them be prepared for their post-secondary experiences.
Last, we hope to use the profit we make in the store to fund DECA, a business club. This club would provide our students with the opportunity to connect with business partners, compete in competitions based on business topics, and learn more skills and knowledge to prepare them for life after high school. DECA requires students to pay dues to be a part of it, and while some of our kids do not have money to pay for that, this will allow us to use the store as a fundraiser so that all students can compete in DECA.