Journals

Week 1:

It is now day two of my senior project. I have been gaining lots of ground and while I am realizing the immense amount of work this project will take I am confident that it can be done. I am realizing that I got ahead of myself the first day and after talking to Mr Burgoyne more I am understanding what exactly I will need to do. Luckily the entrepreneur class meets G period and it looks like I will be working closely with them on the school store side of the project. During G period today we planned out what we need to do for our market research and picked a date for when we would like the store opened, beginning of 4th quarter. I typed up the notes we wrote in class and what we need for our executive plan. I also set-up a meeting with Ms Chauvin and Ms. Dingeldey along with the entrepreneur students to get our plan approved. The meeting will be held February 8th at 11:00 am. I am planning on spending most of my E periods with Grace, Andres, Monique, and Bella in the special ed room so I can really see what their abilities are and how we will have to plan the store accordingly. That will leave H and G period to do most of the planning for starting the store going to meetings collecting surveys and talking to experts in the business field to see what needs to be done. I am going to gear my research more towards the special education aspect of my project it looks like. I am also hoping to set-up a meeting with the woman who runs Chilmark Chocolates and talk to her about how she incorporates special needs employees into her business.


Week 2:

This week was a very productive week in my opinion. Every G period I go to the entrepreneur class and we work as a team on our presentation for the principal next Wednesday. Whatever we don't get done in the 85 minutes I do on my own during E and H. My plan to spend E period with the special ed kids have changed because there is so much to do to actually get the school store started that I don't have time right now. I am making sure though that every step of the way I am thinking of how every decision would affect a kid with special needs. For instance there has to be enough room for someone with a wheelchair to get by a display case and be behind it to work. I also created a smart draw layout of the store itself and our presentation is almost complete. I learned how to make a start-up budget spreadsheet as well for our presentation. Things are going pretty well. I am glad I get to work with the entrepreneur class and have them as my start-up team because this is a huge task.


Week 3:

2/6/17

Today we put the finishing touches on the presentation for Mrs. Dingledy and Mrs. Chauvin for our approval of the school store. We organizes the order in which we were speaking, what exactly each of us will say, made sure we used info from our survey and discussed how to be presentable. I was disappointed at the lack of survey results, but Mr. McGrath is making it so more people in the library will see it and making it easier to actually take the survey. I am now starting to really think about what I will need to do for my research paper which is focusing on the special education part of my project. I need to allot more time for it in the future to make sure I am doing the best I can with it. I have a good feeling about the presentation and think The entrepreneur class and I know what we are talking about and what we are trying to accomplish. I still need to set-up a meeting with the owner of chilmark chocolates and check in with Sally because I haven't talked to her in a while. Actually starting the store was a lot more work than I originally thought it would be. Luckily the entrepreneur class and Mr. Jaksik have been a huge help, but it still has been hard for me to find time to work with the special ed kids. I think I will discuss with Mrs. Bennett tomorrow during my meeting with her what I should do about that side of it and if its ok to wait until 4th quarter to really focus on the life-skills kids in the school store.

2/10/17

On Wednesday we had our proposal meeting. I spent most of the morning finishing up the start-up proposal sheet and presentation. I realised that start-up plans should be informative but also catch your audience's eye. We added colors of purple on each page to really tie in the theme of school pride that we want the store to emulate. The entrepreneur class and I didn't have a ton of time to rehearse our presentation beforehand but I still think it went well. We had Mrs. Dingledy, Mrs. Bennett, Mr. Tauss, Mrs. Chauvin, Mr. Burgoyne, and Mr. Jakusik at the proposal meeting. We went through all the steps necessary to show our plan. Afterwards we had questions and I was surprised at my ability to answer all of them. I didn't realize how much I truly had been learning so far and it is only the beginning of my project!


Week 4

2/14/17

Today I went to Chilmark Chocolates. I spoke with Mary-Beth and the employees working that day about their mission statement and how they run their business to get inspiration for how I should model the school store. They are all about working as a team and not having someone be of higher position than another employee just because of their physical or mental abilities. I hope to model the school store in a similar way. They gave me a lot of information that I will type up and put in my research info plan. I also need to talk to the Special Education teachers about sources I could look at that they might know of for my paper.

2/16/17


Week 5

2/21/17

Today there wasn't any exciting news. I typed up all the info I had gotten at Chilmark Chocolates and organized what things I think we will use for our store, including a permanent mission statement. During the entrepreneur class we created our community resource team and now have a document with everyone's names from the community. It is composed of local vendors and retailers on Martha’s Vineyard. I also called New England Shelving and they promised to get back to me about a 3 foot long display case. We have the document shared with everyone in the class so we can call the vendors during G period on the 23rd.

Week 6

3/8/17

The entrepreneur class and I have been building our community resource team sort of. Things have been going a little slow because of vacation week and me being absent the first two days after break. I also am not sure how much time I will have on friday because I have to finish my literature review by the end of the day. We visited the space again and we called a few companies about getting the slat wall and display cases. It seems like a waiting game in a way.


Week 7:

I feel like my journals have been lacking lately but it's because March has been a crazy month. On Friday we did not have school due to weather but I was able to finish my literature review before then anyways. I am still not sure if my central question is strong enough and I’m sure I will end up modifying it by the end of this process. My literature review is not my best work in my opinion, but it is a work in process. I am still confused as to some of the structuring of the literature review but I think I am getting the hang of it. Today I will be working with the entrepreneur class more and making sure the people we called for materials get back to us. Next week I am hoping to have all the materials and physical parts of the store ready to be in place or on their way. It is time for us to keep powering through and make sure this thing gets done. I also still need to visit the school in Boston that Mrs. Schmidt and Sally said they might be able to take me to which would be awesome.


Week 8:

3/20/17

Today during entrepreneur class me and the three other students worked to find the best value display case. It was a sort of competition and who ever found the top three display cases for the best value got the highest grade for the assignment. I wasn't being graded on it but I still searched for display cases. We learned that shipping is a huge factor when it comes to purchasing supplies and items for the store and something that we have to be very careful of for our budget. After class I called multiple island stores whose contacts we had gathered to ask them if they would like to be apart of our community resource team. Some stores didn't answer but the ones I got a hold of either agreed to be apart of it or said they would tell their manager. I also talked to Sally about going up to Boston still and she said any time after April 1st would work. I just need to talk to Mrs. Schmidt and make sure she can still go.


3/22/17

Today I am talking to Mrs. Schmidt finally to figure out when we are visiting the school in Boston that has an inclusive school store. I also came up with some fundraising ideas, so we can have a bigger inventory for the store.


Week 9:

3/28/17

Today we did a lot of research on what we want both our school store logo and the designs on our first apparel items to be. We all came up with ideas for the logo and we did a lot of brainstorming. I learned alot about how while there are advantages to having a team behind you it can also cause other problems. It's important that we pick things not just on what we like but what on the general population will like in our school. We also assigned the 5 people in our class different project leader positions to divide and conquer the work. We also created a mission statement for the store that include the three main points of what we want our store to achieve. : The school store is an inclusive learning tool that invokes school pride, provides real life skills, and offers high quality merchandise at the best possible value.

We are still figuring out what the name of the store will be. We were thinking something with the room number and playing off that idea, but we are still not sure. The room doesn't actually have a room number however so we could do something like platform 9 and ¾ except room 111 and a half. We still have a lot to decide but today all in all was a very productive day. We are selling sweatshirts, sweatpants, t-shirts and longsleeves for our first merchandise sale this spring.


Week 10:

4/3/17

I am just now realizing how bad at journaling I am. I think I set too high of a goal trying to journal everyday. Last week we got to test out a bunch of different shirts that our designer could possibly sell to us. The 5 of us in entrepreneur class mostly agreed on what shirts and sweatshirts we liked the best. However we were surprised when Mr. Jakusik told us that the other people who he had asked about the shirts didn't necessarily agree with our opinions. It made us realize that some of the choices we might like, might not reflect what the rest of the school community likes. Today I have been working on my research paper for the first two periods, and I’m starting to make some real progress on it. I have about two and half pages right now and that is mostly to just set-up the research and what I have discovered throughout my project thus far. If I keep working at this pace for the next two weeks I should have a really rough draft of what my final paper will look like.

We are also thinking of having a rolling rack to sell merchandise to people during lunch that way it is more convenient and people don't have to leave the cafeteria.

Week 11:

This was the week before break and we only had two classes this week, but we actually ended up getting a good amount done and are in a good place for opening date of May 26th. I’m worried that my senior project presentation won't go over well because it might not be open the day of my presentation May 15th. I have been doing a lot for my project with starting the store and making sure that it is set for next year. What's great though is that over break the wall in front of the store is being taken down and the scissor gate is ordered to be put up after gate. The inventory is all ready to be ordered numbers and products wise we are just waiting for the final designs from our manufacturers that will be put on the merchandise.


Week 12:

4/26/17

We have been filling out a lot of purchase orders this week to finally get the POS System and slatwall fixtures ordered. We are not sure what we are going to do about the display case yet though because Store Supply Warehouse the cost of shipping is ridiculous and we want to try to be as cost effective as possible. I am planning on presenting to the social skills students during B period on Monday as my informal presentation and doing the exhibition H period on May 4th. I am not going to lie I’m a little stressed out. I didn't realize how long everything was going to take and how many hoops you had to jump through to do everything. I know I have been doing work this whole time but I feel like my time management was not as good as I wanted it to be.


Week 13:

5/5/17

Between AP Exams, Newspaper, track and just the end of the school year in general I am surprised at how far the school store has come along. It it nowhere near to where we originally intended it to be but that's ok. I am working on my presentation now and it is interesting to think about what I had thought the school store would be and where it is now.

This is the original plan :

  • February 8th (HEGF) at 11:00am- Meeting with Ms. Dingeldey and Mrs. Chauvin
    • Have professional outline/ Business plan to present ready by then.
    • Have Budget figured out by then make it simple
  • February 10th (EHFG)- Post and send out market research survey
  • February 16th (FGHE)- Have budget finalized even more
  • February 23rd (EHFG)- Have slatwall and whatever shelving units installed or prepared to be installed (Mike Taus included on this)
  • March 8th (FGHE)- Have display case and cash register installed or ready to be installed
  • March 20th (FGHE)- Have all starting inventory ready and in place/ have store mostly set-up
  • March 30th (FGHE)- Have all of PR (Posters, announcements, ads etc.) made and up for the opening of the school store
  • April 3rd-7th ( 3-HEGF, 5-EHFG, 7-EFGH)- buffer room/ week to make-up if anything goes wrong and last minute planning
  • April 24th (EHFG)- open school store!

Wow were we off hahah. I also realized I need to come up with how students will be able to go to the store during their lunch blocks and not get in trouble. I also am nervous to present. Even though I thought the exhibition was pretty annoying at first it did help me in realizing what sort of questions I would be asked about my project and what I need to make sure I include in my presentation. I hope everything works out and that this store is an inclusive environment, that's my number one goal is to help make the school more inclusive. I still don't have the information from Mrs. Schmidt because the woman wont get back to her! I hope we get it soon.


5/18/17

My presentation went pretty well! There is a video that Mr. McGrath has