NDCL School News
Students in Greg Schmidt's marketing principles classes recently served as business consultants to entrepreneurs in Honduras through Global Brigades, an international non-profit organization that collaborates with communities to achieve health and economic goals...
Global Brigades
Students in Greg Schmidt’s marketing principles classes recently served as business consultants to entrepreneurs in Honduras through Global Brigades, an international non-profit organization that collaborates with communities to achieve health and economic goals.
According to Schmidt, the Global Brigades program gave students the opportunity to advise small-business clients and to learn valuable lessons about being good global citizens, including how they can make a difference in countries and communities where there are significant needs.
In a series of Zoom calls, students in six teams interviewed small-business owners, analyzed their businesses, and presented potential solutions to improve the business operations and profitability.
Senior Matt Urda described how he and his team helped their client, a convenience store operator, by developing an advertisement to promote sales.
“We were able to use resources so easily available to us on the internet to help him grow his business,” Matt said.
Senior Helena Mayer and her team worked with the owner of a pinata company.
“We helped her develop a simple business plan and gave her feedback on what she’s already doing,” Helena explained.
The Global Brigades experience gave students a real-world experience of the Catholic social teaching on solidarity as they helped Honduran entrepreneurs grapple with all sorts of obstacles that stand in the way of their hopes and dreams.
“I feel like I have gained a better understanding of navigating small businesses and how challenging it can be, especially in a developing country,” senior Bailey Rice said.
Wojnar Wins Scholastic Art Medal
Senior Natalie Wojnar has been awarded a silver medal in the national Scholastic Art and Writing Competition, placing her among the top 1 percent of student artists nationwide.
Natalie’s award-winning piece, a sculptural box titled “Decomposed Raku,” is among less than 2,000 works to be recognized from more than 260,000 entries submitted from schools throughout the United States.
“Natalie’s work was selected by some of the foremost leaders in the visual and literary arts for excellence in originality, technical skill, and emergence of personal voice and vision,” explained art teacher Claire Raack.
Natalie is among only 18 northeastern Ohio artists – and the only ceramicist – to be recognized in this year’s national competition. Her work will join those of other award-winning artists to be displayed at the National Scholastic Art and Writing Exhibit in New York City on June 7-9.
The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is nation’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens.
