Student-Run Bearcat Coffee Shop
Before the first bell rings at Long Beach High, students are charged up and ready to go, thanks to a coffee shop inside the building operated by students. News 25’s Laurene Callander caught up with some of these hard working students, including one who may run a coffee shop of her own one day.
School hasn’t even started but students at Long Beach High’s Bearcat Coffee Shop spent the early morning whipping up all sorts of drinks to help jump start their day. Destanie Stone loves coffee and her work even more. The high school junior hopes the experience here will help prepare her for a successful business career and one day achieve her ultimate goal. “I want to own my own coffee shop and have subs and sandwiches to go with the coffee. I love coffee and I love making it, like it calms me down, like I get in my zone,” said Stone.
Even if the students do not plan on going into the food and beverage industry after they graduate, Christina Ladner, the teacher who supervises the Bearcat Coffee Shop, says what they learn here can be incorporated into any work environment. “All the way from business planning to costing inventory, running the cash register and of course making all of the drinks. They create new drinks. They just learn everything about running a business.”
While Ladner manages the coffee shop, students taking her business classes run the shop. Students who work here get hands-on, real life lessons. The money made here is used to pay for shop supplies and other inventory. Extra earnings are poured into charities and other noble causes.
But on a daily basis, it helps shake up the school morning.
The Bearcat Coffee Shop at Long Beach High is open throughout the entire school year from 7:20 to about 7:55 every morning.
School hasn’t even started but students at Long Beach High’s Bearcat Coffee Shop spent the early morning whipping up all sorts of drinks to help jump start their day. Destanie Stone loves coffee and her work even more. The high school junior hopes the experience here will help prepare her for a successful business career and one day achieve her ultimate goal. “I want to own my own coffee shop and have subs and sandwiches to go with the coffee. I love coffee and I love making it, like it calms me down, like I get in my zone,” said Stone.
Even if the students do not plan on going into the food and beverage industry after they graduate, Christina Ladner, the teacher who supervises the Bearcat Coffee Shop, says what they learn here can be incorporated into any work environment. “All the way from business planning to costing inventory, running the cash register and of course making all of the drinks. They create new drinks. They just learn everything about running a business.”
While Ladner manages the coffee shop, students taking her business classes run the shop. Students who work here get hands-on, real life lessons. The money made here is used to pay for shop supplies and other inventory. Extra earnings are poured into charities and other noble causes.
But on a daily basis, it helps shake up the school morning.
The Bearcat Coffee Shop at Long Beach High is open throughout the entire school year from 7:20 to about 7:55 every morning.
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