Edgewood showcases how it's training the next generation of business leaders

ELLETTSVILLE — Brittany Tucker believes marketing students at Edgewood High School can do her job.

Tucker, Edgewood's communications coordinator, is planning to transition out of the role and hand off management of the Richland-Bean Blossom School Corp.'s website, social media, advertising, signage and student-produced videos and reels to students. She believes she can "teach them how to do my job."

Tucker shared the plan during a Edgewood Business Leaders’ Advisory Team Luncheon Wednesday that included state legislators, business leaders and EHS students. R-BB schools offer a number of programs aimed at inspiring entrepreneurial mindsets in students.

The Innovative Learning Center gives Edgewood High School students real-world experiences in digital design, marketing, manufacturing and product design. The proceeds are put back into the student-run businesses for materials, supplies and equipment.

Students won't be flying solo when it comes to R-BB's communications outputs, assured Superintendent Jerry Sanders. Tucker and Jennifer Barrett, director of teaching and learning, will supervise the marketing pathway students.

Business representatives from People's Choice Bank, Cook Medical, Smithville Fiber, Dimension Mill and the Ellettsville Chamber of Commerce heard from several of the people involved in Edgewood's business and entrepreneurship programming. Students learn by operating a coffee house, working in the Innovative Learning Center Design workshop and creating in the media center, which includes a podcasting center and design lab.

Classes offered at Edgewood are wide-ranging from principles of business administration to media production and culinary arts, Sanders said.

Barrett said area businesses have invested millions of dollars in the school district, which Barrett hopes the schools return by providing graduates who are ready to work.

Next summer’s business administration classes have the largest enrollment with 109 incoming freshman, followed by principles of agriculture with 55, and early childhood education with 22, Barrett said.

Lisa Wilson heads the Innovative Learning Classroom, where students design products and learn to repair items. One example Wilson described involved repairing a broken necklace and teaching the student how to solder the pieces together. Wilson heads up rooms where woodworking, embroidery and many other skills are taught.

At the EHS Coffee Corral, which is open to the student body between classes, students are the managers, in charge of determining a price based on inputs for drinks, and learning soft skills useful when working as a team.

Sophomore Molly Adams, working in Brittany Tucker's marketing class, developed an app so students can order a drink — the hard part is keeping it under 60 calories — during a basketball game, and the app lets the student know when it was ready, said Stacia Myers, a teacher in the business administration program who also leads the EHS Coffee Corral.

Both state Sen. Shelli Yoder (D-Bloomington), and state Rep. Bob Heaton (R-Terre Haute) were in attendance.

Yoder sat with Edgewood high school students Jackson Klinger and Wren Millick, both of whom work extensively in the ILC managing finances and ILC Designs.

Yoder emphasized her job during this off-season from her Statehouse responsibilities is to listen to students and teachers about what they need in the next legislative session, after the 2024 election.

Klinger spoke directly and passionately to Yoder, saying he needs more teachers to support students as they gain skills to get into good colleges and business programs like Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.

This made Yoder happy, she said. Yoder was a professor at Kelley before she became a senator.

Yoder later said in the next legislative session, lawmakers will be creating a new budget and she wants to convince her colleagues to allocate more dollars to support programs like the ILC and Early Childhood Education programs across southern Indiana.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: R-BB showcases business skills taught in learning labs, student businesses