Hoover High School Seniors Look to Profit from Student-Run Companies

Partnering with other businesses, researching a product before it hits the market and offering something unique.

That’s what a handful of business management students say will make their class project and student-run business a success. Students in that class create and run their own businesses through the Junior Achievement Company program.

One business, Viking Enterprises Division 12, will sell framed letter art — meaning photos of letters in the alphabet — under the direction of teacher Kim Nidy, and with the help of Hudson framing company FastFrame.

Nidy is impressed with the rarity of the students’ product, which consists of framed photos of letters, which can spell whatever word the customer chooses.

“My kids went out and took all the pictures,” Nidy said. “All the pictures are from North Canton, which makes it really unique.”

Three students took the photos, which are snapshots of lettering on the , city hall and , among other places.

Dominicue DiPietro, 17, vice president of human resources for Division 12,  looks forward to seeing how the business fares. She said after seeing a few products come in, the students are starting to realize they’re onto something good, too.

“It was exciting to know we could get it done professionally and give everyone a really good product that’s put together really good and not high school-made.”

The product is made to order, so there is no extra product left over. That extra product would mean a loss for the company, Nidy said.

Hayden Ostrowske, 17, president of the company, said North Canton is a good market for the product because he thinks customers are willing to spend $50 on framed letter art. Prices are $50 to $210.

Michael Teter, 17, heads Viking Enterprises Division 8, the other business venture. It pitches promotional items to trucking companies. 

The class subsequently got a company to donate CRM, or customer relationship management software, which is one resource students often don’t have access to but need to know how to use in the field, Nidy said.

That software is one aspect of the class Teter looks forward to.

“I’m really excited about that,” he said. “I think this class is really going to help me get the experience part of it.”

The class, which is geared toward students who have their sights on business careers, follows two courses students elect to take between their freshman and junior years. Twelve college credits await those students who successfully complete the curriculum. Each class builds on the next, so by the time the students reach their senior year, they are ready to run their own businesses, Nidy said.

Students, who are divided into teams such as marketing and human resources, earn a paycheck at the end of the year. Nidy has seen those checks weigh in anywhere between $3 to $450 per student.

Nidy said the students’ hands-on learning in her class puts them in a great position to enter college courses upon graduation. It’s not uncommon for her to receive a thank-you from former students who felt well prepared when others in their classes were unfamiliar with the material.

“I’m proud of it,” Nidy said. “I worked very hard to get us to this level, and a lot of schools say, ‘They can’t learn it. They’re too young to learn it.’ I don’t believe that. They can learn whatever you teach them.”

Editor's note: Find an order form for the framed letter art in the PDFs section of this story. And for more information about ordering from the companies, e-mail the students at vikingent@northcantonschools.org. They said their website will be up and running in the coming days, and customers may order there, too.