Not many students can say they have experience starting a business from the ground up in high school, but eight Steelville pupils are doing just that in an entrepreneurship class, which is being offered for the first time this year.

Co-taught by Roger Siwak and Jackson Case, the class is designed to equip students with entrepreneurial, digital design and hands-on production skills. 

The idea to bring an entrepreneurship class to Steelville came from Principal Jeff Gibson, who wanted to expose students to careers in graphic design, digital marketing, e-commerce and advanced manufacturing. The district received a $5,000 rural education grant from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks to fund the class.

Thanks to the grant money, Steelville High School now has a Fusion Lab with a direct-to-film printer, a vinyl cutter, two heat presses and a mug press.

The entrepreneurship class was designed to be entirely student-run. And the students certainly are running it – they’ve spent the school year designing and producing custom t-shirts and sweatshirts, which they sell to their fellow students and community members.

Cardinal Prints has sold shirts to the band, girls basketball team, cross country team, baseball team, golf team and even a local youth center and Cuba-based music group.

The students’ success shows in their sales, as the class was able to purchase a second direct-to-film printer using its profits. All funds go back into sustaining the business. The students set sales goals each month (April’s goal is $1,000) and choose a reward, like a team lunch, for meeting them. 

Case and Siwak assigned students to three departments at the start of the year: sales, design and production. Since then, they’ve learned how to do things like set up an invoicing system, make sales calls, determine pricing and schedule deliveries. 

“(Our) vision for the class was something more than we sit up here and lecture, and they take tests – it’s that they actually learn how to be entrepreneurs, more by doing,” Case said. 

“We’ve kind of all learned together,” Siwak said.

Case and Siwak have both enjoyed seeing how much students have bought into the class, especially in its first year. Students are engaged and have fun with what they’re doing, they said. In fact, they even have one student who chooses to come in during her lunch hour.

“She just does it because she’s proud of it, she believes in what we’re doing and the quality, and she’ll come in and that’s pretty cool,” Siwak said.

The co-teachers hope for enrollment to expand into two periods next year, and are looking to start offering embroidered apparel depending on if they can get additional grant funding. 

“Our vision for the class, I don’t think it’s just that we might have more business, make more money – that’s not really what it’s about,” Case said. “I also think it’s important that the kids get out and they make connections with people in the community.”

Anyone interested in ordering from Cardinal Prints can reach out to rsiwak@steelville.k12.mo.us.