Dec 13, 2010

Student-operated gift store allows the employees to gain work skillsBy Dan HoltzLeaderTelegram.com

Arturo “Pacho” Schwencke finds it almost amazing that he and his classmates in Chippewa Valley Technical College’s applied marketing experience class were ready to open a small business just 16 days into the fall semester.

“You get a group of people you’ve never seen before and in 16 days you get a business up and running,” Schwencke said.

Schwencke and his 26 classmates operate Bridgeport Apparel and Gifts, a retail store on CVTC’s main campus on Clairemont Avenue. The store is operated each semester by the applied marketing experience class.

Schwencke, a native of Santiago, Chile, who now lives in Eau Claire, is this semester’s general manager at Bridgeport.

The hardest part was figuring out everybody’s skills, he said. “You learn you have to work with others and you are not always right. You need to recognize the jobs the others do. We need each other.”

“It’s just fantastic to see how the process works in a business,” Schwencke said. “It’s a great experience. I wouldn’t change it for a thing.”

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