The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
High school students teach business
High school Entrepreneurship class gives advice to college students, faculty
Entrepreneurship students at Canastota visited Morrisville State to teach college students and faculty.
MORRISVILLE, N.Y. » Canastota students enrolled in Robert Esposito’s Entrepreneurship class took a class trip Thursday afternoon to visit Morrisville State College’s business department to take on an unorthodox role: instead of learning from the college, they came to present to professors and Morrisville students about their newest class project, TECRAID.
TECRAID is a technology company that deals with selling items such as keyboards, computers, laptops, and phones created under Virtual Enterprise International, which allows school programs to create a fictitious business that replicates all of the nuances of a real business in both structure and practice. Although TECRAID is only in its second year of operation, Virtual Enterprise Inter- national was conceived in 1995 in Austria and has been adopted in school programs across the world.
“I heard of them [VEI] from a teacher I knew at New Dorp High School in Staten Island, N.Y. TECRAID allows students to get a feel how a real busi- ness operates, as well as allowing them to interact with professionals within the school and business professionals in the Canastota community,” said Esposito, who is both class instructor and CEO of TECRAID.
Constructed with an East and West division to help cre- ate a friendly, competitive atmosphere, TECRAID has several different departments that students can choose from to either learn a new area of business or hone a set of skills they are familiar with. Students have the opportunity to work in Information Technology; Sales; Accounting; Customer Service; Marketing; or Human Resources.
“We’re given our own aspect to the business field because we are just given the information. We are the one’s responsible for putting it into action and communicating as a whole between departments. Being able to plan out everything together really gives us real world experience as to what it would be like to run our own business,” said Western president Gabbie Edwards, a sophomore at Canastota High School.
Students are involved with aspects of starting a business
that are typically overlooked. Students in Esposito’s class were required to measure the dimensions of the classroom and cross referenced them to the prices of houses in the area to determine rent, as well as factoring in the cost of utilities month to month.
Once the dimensions of their workspace are configured and priced accordingly, students begin to work on the parameters required of a business. Contingent on the department, students are responsible for managing payroll, social media outreach, sales pitching, ordering, selling, and working with other companies to stay competitive in the virtual business world.
Although TECRAID is still new, the company has successfully made transactions internationally with Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, and Spain. With business growing
“As president, the program really teaches you the importance of leadership of business and being able to speak publicly on them in presentations such as the one we did today.” — Eastern president Nathan Saunders, a senior at Canastota
overseas, one of Esposito’s aspirations for the program is to continue to involve the community.
“Currently, we have a sponsorship from Caldwell Insurance and Albanese Shoes. Home Town Pizzeria has donated free pizza coupons, which are raffled off monthly to any Canastota staff members who participates in the program. As of right now, we are trying to get Vooreesville High School and Morrisville State College to join the VEI community,” said Esposito.
“I’ve taken most of the business classes that Canastota has to offer,” said Eastern president Nathan Saunders, a senior at Canastota, as he reflected on his visit to Morrisville State. “As president, the program really teaches you the importance of leadership of business and being able to speak publicly on them in presentations such as the one we did today. It was really cool to introduce a new concept to a college about what we do at Canastota.”
Not only does Esposito’s Entrepreneurship class equip aspiring business students with a detailed look into what their future career will look like, it is also affiliated with Onondaga Community College, where students who take the class earn three credit hours towards their college degree for no cost at all.
Looking forward to the future success and influ- ence TECRAID and Virtual Enterprise International has on Canastota as a whole, Esposito said the school is “very fortunate” to have an administration “that has the vision to implement a program that is vital to the students’ well being. This type of support is vital to the success of the overall education commu- nity here at Canastota High School.”
To find out more information on Virtual Enterprise International visit: https://veinternational.org.