Eight high school students in Berlin, N.Y., are getting a chance to tackle problems usually handled by MBA students, thanks to a partnership between a local school and W.J. Cowee, a manufacturer of wooden floral picks and plant stakes.

Through the Cowee Program at Berlin High School, the students have been developing strategic business plans to expand sales of Cowee products into the United Kingdom and New Zealand next year. The students, who are divided into two teams, will present their plans live on local radio station WAMC in January. The winning team will split a $1,000 college scholarship, courtesy of Cowee.

"Sometimes, we miss a simple and elegant solution to issues because we are jaded, or we are using our prior experiences, which in turn forces us to limit our creative thinking for new challenges," says Brian E. Suslak, president and CEO of Cowee. "A student that is not limited by 'history' has the opportunity to hatch a fantastic idea."

The annual program began three years ago after "educators in the district challenged W.J. Cowee to recommend how they might best help their students establish skill sets for jobs of the future," Suslak says. "We came up with this program so that today's students could employ their basic skill sets in data gathering, writing, math, geography, comparative cultures, etc., and tie them all together in a real world case study involving international commerce."

Educators from Williams College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute teach most of the course, although Cowee executives have been guest lecturers for three to four specific classes, Suslak says. The school selected the participating students, who take the course as part of their normal curriculum, based on their interests and academic credentials. This year, the course's focus was more international than it has been in the past, with students researching global commerce to market Cowee's Kolor Stix, 18-inch design stakes that come in six colors, internationally.

"We have modified the course objective from two years ago so that it is more broad-based as a business class on international trade and commerce, and not just oriented to U.S. manufacturing/engineering," Suslak says.

If the ideas stick, Suslak says Cowee is prepared to put its corporate name behind the student-generated plans.

--Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org

 

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