Alcona Students open Tea and Bean coffee shop
ALCONA COUNTY, Mich. — Wake up and smell the coffee, Alcona High School!
The Tea and Bean coffee shop opened this week, and it’s run by a group of four entrepreneurship and marketing students, with the help of their teacher.
“That’s why I like doing this,” said Alcona Senior Caleb Kamischke. “Every day we’re doing something new, or looking at a new project to see what best suits our business.”
Kamischke is the oldest student in the group, and he says learning hands-on beats doing schoolwork any day of the week.
“It’s better than doing a test,” Kamischke said.
The students’ teacher, Mrs. Aimee Renchenski, says getting some time away from the classroom is nice for teachers, as well.
“As a teacher sometimes you don’t know if they’re learning something or not, especially in the traditional classroom,” Renchenski said. “When you put it towards this, you actually see what they’ve learned.”
Tea and Bean operates during the students’ lunch hour, and they sell everything from the typical cup of coffee, to expresso shots and even their most popular item- Boba Tea. Kamischke and his three classmates all want to be involved with business when they get older. As for Renchenski, seeing her students apply what she teaches in a real world experience is priceless.
“[There’s] a lot of pride,” Renchenski said. “I’m just so proud of my students, I come in every day smiling and excited to see what they’re going to do.”
The program expects to run the coffee shop for the rest of the school year and years following. For now, they operate on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. As for Kamischke and the others, let’s hope there’s more coffee- and less tests.
