SRA students learn business practices in student store

Santa Rosa Academy business students run the Ranger Station student store. Photos by Trisha Jenkins

By Hannah McGaughey, Intern

Santa Rosa Academy’s Ranger Station is back in business. This student store is run by the school’s Business Academy students. The store is open two days a week: Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

At the beginning of each school year, Foundations in Business students make a business plan that includes details about the store’s organization, along with operation and marketing strategies. They incorporate key business tools like a SWOT analysis. This is a diagram that includes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a business.

These students present the Ranger Station business plan to “investors” (administration) to get approval for operations. Through this work, the students learn how to start their own businesses and become valued employees.

The store puts students in a working environment with an employee structure. The jobs, such as merchandiser, accountant, cashier, marketer, and shift manager, help students learn how to handle money and work together in a professional environment.

One student who worked at the Ranger Station for two years commented, “The Ranger Station can help students prepare themselves for the workforce by putting them in potentially high stress areas when the station has a large amount of orders.

“It also helps with incorporating communication between the student, which is necessary if you’re in the workforce. Another thing that I believe the Ranger Station prepares students for is to help them get used to a chain of command among themselves. As in one person will report to another person and so on.”

The students must learn how to communicate effectively to get orders out quickly. They practice problem solving and maintaining a strong work ethic throughout the lunch time rush.

They also focus on what to do with the income earned, such as giving back to the community. In the past, they have donated toward scholarships, purchased needed sporting equipment, and reinvested back into the school-run business to grow its operations.

The students focus on character and work ethic within the store that helps them gain real world experience to land a part time job in their high school future.