Starting this year, the business club is the newest addition to Mineola High School’s growing number of after-school activities. Teachers Ann Zaffarese and Bonnie Greene co-advise this creative outlet in collaboration with the Fab Lab, technology team and other faculty in the Tech Ed department. The club meets every other Wednesday in the Fab Lab with many seniors having already joined, as well as juniors and sophomores.
According to Greene, the club first arose as an offshoot for the business ownership and marketing course that was presented as an elective for the first time this year. This course is currently working on products to be produced in the Fab Lab and sold to consumers in the community, which the club will help along in any way they can.
“We’re looking forward to putting in our ideas in order to help the business grow,” said club member Abby Ahamed.
The purpose of the club is to give students that have an interest in running a business who may not have been enrolled in the course, a place to expand on that interest. Even more so, for those that are seniors that would like to pursue a business major once they graduate next year, this is a great opportunity for them.
The first meeting had students explore their interests within the business world. To test their business creativity, club members were given a ping pong ball and had two minutes, working alone or with someone else, to create a use for it. Afterwards, they presented a one minute pitch to the rest of the members with their new product idea. Some examples of potential products included a drain dropper and a cake pop mold. In a recent meeting, members explored more aspects of finance to help partake in running a business.
“It is an interesting marriage of club, class and the needs of the school business,” said Greene.
Future goals of the club would be to explore business news of the day and current events. The club would like to dive deeper into learning about hiring and personnel decisions as well. Another potential endeavor the business club has in mind is video chatting with a business leader once a month to explore different perspectives and mindsets within their business experience. However, this will be on hold until more experience is gained in business relations.
Another goal the club hopes to accomplish by the next meeting is the selection of club officers.
“These officers will be able to streamline goals for the year,” Greene explained.
The club is hoping to expand next year and create a new Mineola tradition. Also, this will hopefully provide a growing interest to the lower grades to join the business class next year which is acceptable for grades ten and up.
“Future new members are welcome to drop in as it is always helpful having hands on deck,” Greene said.
