When high school students start a business as a class project, it's usually a coffee shop or school store, but students in Angie Amos' small business operations class took a different approach.
The class, which is part of the school's career technology education program, started a marketing firm -- Panther Creative -- that offers the services of students in graphic design, digital communications, social media, film and drone (aerial video and thermography) classes to the public. The business students are responsible for meeting and communicating with clients, assigning projects and managing deadlines, according to Amos, who also teaches several design and social media classes.
Amos said she believes the student-run marketing firm is the first in the state. So far, they have done creative projects for external organizations such as the Siloam Springs Police Department, Main Street Siloam Springs, the Chamber of Commerce and a local author as well as projects inside the district for theater productions, band and choir concerts, and sports events plus school initiatives such as the Panther Health and Wellness Clinic, Amos said.
The demand for creative jobs inside the school district and in the community is partially the inspiration for the new student business, Amos said. When Ross White, assistant principal and career technical education programs coordinator, came to Siloam Springs two years ago, he suggested adding the small business operations class and creating a marketing firm, she said.
Real-world experience
In addition to giving business students real-world experience and teaching them skills such as communications and responsibility, allowing students to manage the projects frees up design and film teachers and students to focus on creativity, according to Amos.
"It's really nice as teachers," said Megan Denison, who teaches film, television and drone classes, "I mean we have so many responsibilities and so many classes to keep up with. If we're making contacts in the community and managing those projects on the district level that's like adding in another job, it's another day's work, so being able to delegate some of that responsibility to students and give them the experience of running a business and delegating responsibility and checking in on deadlines, you know, dealing with hearing criticism and then giving that criticism to their peers so their peers can revise their work, those are all really essential skills for students."
Working with real-world clients and managers from a marketing firm is also a good experience for design and film students, according to Amos and Denison. Hearing feedback from peers and clients has been invaluable to design students because it makes them look at their work in a different way, Amos said.
"They are getting real time feedback pretty much on a class daily basis, you know they are getting the feedback not just from a customer but from a peer and that's way different than me saying it," Amos said "It's more valid when it comes from someone else."
Another advantage is that students learn responsibility because they are not just working for a grade, their final project is going out to a real client, Denison said.
"Somebody is actually going to see it, they can't just say 'ehh, I'll take a C on it,'" she said.
On Friday, film and television students were filming for a promotional video for the Siloam Springs Police Department.
Officer DeAndra Strickland said this will be the second video the school has produced for the department.
"The police department and the school district has an amazing working relationship," she said. "Obviously, most people know the relationship the police department has with the school district because of the school resource officers that we have and so through that relationship we've learned about the different programs they have and we've just kind of built on that and to see that we can give them that chance to number one, learn those skills they are there to learn, but also to help build that relationship as well so they get that inside look at who we are and what we do and how things work. It's just a win, win for everybody."
The students have always been very professional, polite and open to dialogue about the police department's needs, she said. The department has definitely been pleased with the finished projects.
"Every video I've ever seen them put out is very high quality, they do a great job," she said.
Preparing for college and career
Dexit Goel, a senior who is in both business and film classes, has worked on several projects for Panther Creative including promotional films for Main Street Siloam Springs about the Siloam Springs Farmers Market's SNAP program and the Homegrown Festival.
Goel said the projects have developed his communication skills and heightened his sense of responsibility.
"We take what we learned and put it to use in the real world," he said. "It was just developing and refining our skills."
Seniors Madilyn Martin, Malia Martin and Avery Whorton, who have all worked together on the business side of projects by assigning jobs and communicating with clients, agreed that the experience has developed their communications skills and sense of responsibility.
Seniors Reed Willbanks and Vincent Martinez have also worked together on the business side of projects, and Martinez has done some creative work. Martinez explained that the business students use a project management software program called Slack to communicate with students in other classes in a virtual team.
Martinez said the classes have helped spark his interest in a career in design and business.
"It really gives us an idea of what we're getting into," he said. "This isn't exactly the real world but it's as close as you can get in high school and this has really given me a sense of what I'm getting myself into. I think I want to keep doing stuff like this so I'm really glad to have a class that could help with that."
Kacey Soderquist, who is taking senior technical communications, created the school's homecoming T-shirts and volleyball posters, in addition to a lot of little design jobs. She feels the experience has better prepared her for college at John Brown University and a career in graphic design.
This year, Panther Creative is offering its services for free. Eventually, they hope to charge for services and use the money they earn for supplies or to replace equipment, Amos said.
"I think it was really wise not to charge this first year and not to monetize it just because we really do need to work the kinks out before we start asking for money," Denison said.
"And maybe have a portfolio of work we can show," Amos said.
For more information about Panther Creative, contact Angie Amos at [email protected]. To order graphic design services visit tinyurl.com/GraphicDesignOrder and for film or video services visit tinyurl.com/FilmOrder.
General News on 12/12/2018