As a year older and a year wiser our Daily Academies have really grown! We now have a beautiful teaching garden that allows students and teachers to interact with nature and learn alongside each other. We also have Roadtrip Nation taking our students on a ride of preparing for their futures and future endeavors. And our Daily Business Academies are bringing back their new and improved Strive Candles. Strive candles have a whole new look at the same great price: $6 each or 4 for $20.
With the new school year we have new goals for our Academies. The Business Academy hopes to get their store online and accepting credit cards. Roadtrip Nation hopes to go on more field trips and have students job shadow local professionals. Environmental Futures Academy hope to bring their expert knowledge to other sites in GUSD and grow gardens all over Glendale. In addition, Mrs. Alarcon of the Business Academy got her Donor's Choose Project Funded! Click on the Photo for more info on the Donor's Choose Project! It started in a classroomWith the new Common Core State Standards and thinking about the students that we at Allan F. Daily serve, we wanted to change things up a bit. At Daily, we serve students that had difficulties in a comprehensive high school, and give students a more intimate setting, smaller class sizes, and a lot of structure and feedback on bad habits that may have developed. We wanted to give our students exposure to real-life literacy and writing needs that they will be expected to do once they graduate. Thus, our academies were born. We wanted to focus on a trade, look at the literacy, writing and teamwork needed in a career after high school. We wanted to focus on the listening, speaking, as well as the reading and writing required for many jobs in today's era. So we formed various academies and the Business Academy was one of them.
We started with foundational skills. We read professional articles, looked at what it took to start a small business. It started heavily on reading, writing, and focusing on imaginary companies. It was dense. The students and I liked it, but we wanted to DO something. We didn't want to be leaders of imaginary companies, we wanted to become leaders for something real. We didn't know what we were going to do, but we knew we would burn out if we only focused on theory. So we brainstormed various products we could make as a fundraiser for our school. Our business model was simple: Create a product, sell it at a competitive price, make money for our school, and give back to our community. We looked at different products that would build us as a team. We first were interested in building a bike. They are cool, there is a great company that sells a great bike kit. After sending emails back and forth we learned that they work with at-risk students as well to build bikes. There was tons of geometry built into the making of the product as well as teambuilding, problem solving, and so many other skills we wanted our students to learn. But, there was one huge hurdle: the price. The kits were expensive and that would be a large investment by our schools to make. So, it was back to the drawing board. The next brainstorm session would be about products that we can use everyday. So we tried to make body sugar scrubs. They were all over Pinterest at the time, and were made with very affordable ingredients. We made a batch and they were nice, but we wanted something with less liability. We would feel really guilty if someone was allergic to our product, and didn't want to start with such a gamble. So, we once again went back to the drawing board. A student in class had an idea of making candles early on, but not everybody was on board. She made candles as a hobby and she talked us into trying them out. I am crafty, but I never make candles before. I googled a candle making class and sure enough, one came up very close to us. All it costed was $20 and a half day of learning. It was a great class and I was hooked. As a teacher I know, once I am super excited about something I can usually get my students super excited! So, we tried our hand at the Art of Candle Making. Our experience was priceless. I took a class of 13 students that never liked, attended, or were very good at school and made them into great candle makers and sales people. They were invested because they made most of the decisions. They chose our name: Strive (which was based on our goals here at Daily, to Strive to do better). They chose our fragrances, they choose our price and calculated our profits. They were on FIRE! Our initial goal was to sell 100 candles a week before Winter Break. We sold out in 2 days!!!!! It was amazing! We had half of the class selling and half of the class making more candles for the demand. We made 232 candles! and we were SOLD OUT by the end of the week! It was an amazing experience. After Winter Break we were able to re-group and discuss why we were so successful. 1. It was during the holidays. 2. Our school is located next to the District Office, and generally a great location in Glendale. We were able to have a lot of exposure to people from outside of our school and the District Office Staff. 3. Customers wanted to support our school. They loved that this was student driven and a fundraiser for our school. 4. Because they were student made. 5. Because our candles are great. We had so many repeat customers. They loved the candles, and had to buy more for themselves, friends and family. After our discussion we saw how invested we all were in our products, we loved our candles just as much as our customers did. We, personally didn't make any money. It all went to the school, and we donated 10% of our gross earnings to The Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund. Our school profited over $700, our most successful fundraiser yet. We are now getting ready for our Spring sale with Valentine's Day in mind. We are branching out and trying new things like colored and scented 100% Soy Candles. We have redesigned the packaging to make it more cost effective and are keeping our price at an industry low of $5 dollars a candle. We hope that everybody stops by to take a look at our small outdoor boutique outside of Allan F. Daily High School from 1:30-4:00pm Feb. 3rd-Feb.14th. Strive Candles are the gift that gives back. For a look at our products feel free to go to our Store Page. -Jamie Alarcon ASB teacher/Business Advisor English Teacher and Candle Maker Lover of Education and Learning
We have been working really hard to jump start our programs and network with our community.
Our Environmental Futures Academy (EFA) has worked tirelessly clearing out areas on campus to start a garden in our school. Their goals are to plant fruits and vegetables from seedlings, ensure our school is reducing our trash making our school more "green", they are ensuring our students working as a team, and learning about the environment. Our Sports Academy has been learning sports leadership, team work and essential basketball skills these past two weeks. They have been working on skill building drills and small 5 on 5 basketball games. They have been learning about their own health and wellbeing as well as various current sports related stories in the news. Their goal is to expose students a wide variety of careers in sports, team building and training, and taking care of your body and mind. Our Business Academy has been working on Back to School Night flyers. They have been going through the entire process of getting a bid of their project. We have also been working on Public Speaking. Students presented a informational speech that boosted their confidence. In another section of the class students have been working on resume writing skills and ways to get the job you want. Our academy has also been working on writing professional business letters, asking respected business leaders in Los Angeles to join us in our career fair this fall. If you or your company would be willing to volunteer as a guest speaker at are career fair please contact us at [email protected]. If you would like to donate any supplies, time, or expertise to one of our academies please feel free to contact us. Here at Allan F. Daily we are undergoing some innovative changes. The one thing that is missing is the funds. As you move toward the next tax year, think about donating to our schools. Gift Cards, Specials, things we can raffle off are wonderful. Other things we need are suiting for men, an adjustable aluminum easel, tracing paper, masking tape, poster board (black, 22 x 28, 6 ply-coated), Poster board (22 x 28), Poster Board (22 x 28, white), Inkpress Glossy Pager, and double-sided tape. If you or or company would be kind enough to donate please contact [email protected].
Thanks! We teachers have been working very hard to get ready for the new school year. We have been planning great lessons, adding real-life experience and career readiness to our curriculum and have been gaining excitement as we anticipate our new students. Here at Daily, we have been especially working on our Academies. Our Green Living academy is working toward teaching students about sustainability, gardening and green power. Our Sports Academy is focused on teaching leadership and cooperation through sports as well as exposing students to various jobs that are sports related. Here in our Business Academy we hope to teach leadership, public speaking, marketing and advertising, and career readiness to evoke a love of problem solving, collaboration and entrepreneurial spirt. We want to give our at-risk students exposure to the life they could have if they gained some essential 21st tools that will enable them to design their dream job. We acknowledge that the world is changing, and technology and innovation are going to be the key drivers of our students future. We hope that our public in Glendale will support us in this journey both monetarily and through support of our program.
Currently we are looking for Business Owners and Leaders in the community to speak to our students about the business world as well as places to visit for field trips. If you are interested please contact us at [email protected]. Take a look at the exciting goals Daily's business academy have planned for the upcoming school year. If you are a community member that is interested in helping at-risk teens as a guest speaker, a philanthropist, or willing to donate a service or gift to our students please contact us at [email protected]. |