By Veronica Beltran

entrepreneurship at Duchess

Duchess Park students ditch the books for some hands-on experience

Jan 15, 2020 | 2:46 PM

PRINCE GEORGE–Entrepreneurship students at Duchess Park Secondary are taking a hands-on approach to learning, with Park Cafe.

Park Cafe, was created as an option for Duchess Park students to not have to leave school grounds for that hot cup of Joe, especially when temperatures are extreme–much like this week’s extreme cold.

The Cafe is currently being run by entrepreneurship students, and offers them a hands-on approach at applying the skills they would normally learn from a textbook. “Having the coffee cart allows us to actually do some hands-on, practical experience with the entrepreneurial skills we are talking about,” said Brandon Frederick, the Entrepreneurship Teacher at Duchess Park Cafe.

Students assign themselves roles, at the beginning of the semester and some of them–the barista’s–have undergone training in order to be able to use the cafe equipment. Other roles include scheduling, ordering supplies, and finances.

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The feedback from has been positive from the students, “they were a little hesitant at first,” said Frederick, “pretty well every student that has done it…they come back to me and they have all these ideas about things that we can do.”

Dakota Chang, a current entrepreneurship student agrees that getting away from the textbooks is a nice break from how they learn “It’s a good hands-on experience and I can take my abilities that I have learned from here and implement them in the future.”

Entrepreneurship doesn’t run year-round, so once the semester is up, the reigns will be handed to the Leadership class next, “leadership wants to carry on what entrepreneurship has already made,” said Meghan Allan, the Leadership Teacher at Duchess Park, “what I am really hoping for is a lot of growth and development with my students. A lot of students in leadership tend to be shy, so it’s a good interaction to meet other students in the school.”

Park Cafe is open to students on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and is located outside the library.