Stevenson’s school-based enterprise (SBE), referred by students as the “Titan Shoppe” received a gold certification by DECA’s International Career Development Conference.
“[The DECA award] is part of a program where we show that if our store was a legitimate business outside of school that we meet all the standards that a regular business should meet in order to have successful operations,” Ilias Cholagh ‘25 said.
After gaining this certification, the school store is able to run as a standalone business to continue providing students with their services. O’neal Youno ‘25 said the school provides a lot for students.
“The school store is able to provide food, drinks and Stevenson apparel to the school, and also help fund school events,” Youno said. “We also are teaching students how to run a real-world business.”
Although now able to be an independent business, the school store at its core is still a class. The CTE School Store Operations class goes beyond the surface level and gives students both a thorough education on necessary topics but also provides them with much needed work experience.
“The school store teaches students how to run a business, handle business operations, handle food, point of service systems and cash,” Cholagh said. “You learn how to work in an environment of providing to customers and to help build those relationships, and also it teaches you how to handle yourself in that environment”
Behind every class is a teacher that can give students a proper education in the class’s subject manner. In the school store teacher Heather Gabriel works as an adviser for the students giving them proper knowledge, that ultimately helped win them the DECA certification.
“We go over trends; I give them information related to source statistics. We talk about our target market, and how we adapt the Titan shop to what our student body’s needs and want are,” Gabriel said. “I give them suggestions on where they can improve things. I collaborate with ideas with them. Take into consideration what their thoughts are.”
Gabriel’s position provides students with important information and business strategies. The store is importantly student run, so she makes sure everyone’s voice is heard for the betterment of the business. But also stemming from the independent nature, she prepares students to work on their own without adult assistance. This shows that, behind it all, it was the students who were able to become officially certified.
“Our teachers are strong leaders, and they guide us in a way that we can stay strong and have a good foundation on them,” Youno said. “And then we were all trained in a way where we went in two weeks on a certain job, and we kept on building skill, and we all know what we’re doing, so even if the teachers aren’t here, we’re still able to manage our Titan Shoppe.”
