The coffee shop in the commons is busy serving drinks while giving students a chance to earn experience in positions like manager or cashier. Before the shop there was a general store, and now there is a coffee shop with costumers pouring in. 

The coffee shop opened two years ago and has slowly become a favorite place for students to get coffee in the morning. The shop has changed a lot and now offers a range of services for staff and coffee for students.

This hot spot of students has to be staffed, and it is by volunteers who come in the morning early to get ready to serve plenty of students, but during the day students from the Entrepreneurship program deliver to staff who order during the day.

“They come in before school at like 8:10-8:15 a.m., sometimes they come in and as early as eight to open up the shop so that it’s open for students until 8, but then during our first-period class, they deliver orders to staff,” said Michelle Sirois, a teacher in the Entrepreneurship program.

How did this coffee shop now with a moderate number of patrons coming and getting coffee in the morning start or more like when?

“It started as a retail store and then it evolved as a coffee shop and was in business for a couple of years, but what we did last year is we rebranded the coffee shop into what it is today,” Sirois said.

Although it may have started as a retail store, it has grown as a coffee shop and has gained a well-deserved reputation among the students. But there is always something that gives rise to a new idea and the coffee shop was no exception when it was created.

“When I started last year is that the kids that were in my class didn’t realize that it was more of a hands-on class and it was dual credit. They [the students] had the option of continuing with their own personal business or working on developing a coffee shop for the school or both. And so a lot of them really wanted to open this coffee shop back up. And so I changed the lesson plans to reflect that because the students really drove that desire,” said Sirios.

The success of the coffee shop shows how teamwork between students and teachers can turn a simple beginning idea into something amazing.