Ben Medina, Buena High School, CTE Woodworking Program and downtown Ventura partner, Michele Foster from Visit Ventura
Ventura Unified School District has partnered with local businesses to teach entrepreneurship to students.
Several Downtown Ventura businesses have partnered with Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) in the fourth year of the Vision to Marketplace program, which matches local merchants with Career Technical Education (CTE) students from throughout the school district.
This program introduces and teaches students about entrepreneurship, product design, development, and delivering products to market. Career Technical Education students go through the process of evaluating market demand, visioning, prototyping, manufacturing, marketing, and selling wholesale products to participating Downtown businesses for December holiday sales. Funds from the wholesale purchases go back into the participating CTE programs.
Dr. Rene Rickard, VUSD’s Chief Innovation Officer, explained, “Keeping with the tenets of Career Technical Education, Vision to Marketplace allows students to tap into their own creativity, build on existing skills, and learn how to become innovative entrepreneurs. Ventura’s business owners have been extremely generous with their time and expertise, mentoring our students throughout the process and providing them with valuable feedback. We look forward to continuing our partnerships with local businesses and expanding Vision to Marketplace to engage more students.”
Students met with Downtown business owners in September to determine viable products for sale in their shops. Participating businesses provided mentoring and feedback on prototyped manufactured products throughout October and placed orders. Then, students produced and delivered products to the stores in late November for holiday sales.
To help facilitate production, participating students were provided with access to the IDEA Center manufacturing lab in the heart of Ventura’s Westside. The IDEA center is a dedicated community center for Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship and Art, and was created by the non-profit organization STEMbassadors. The center provides training and access to industry-standard equipment such as laser cutters, CNC routers, direct-to-garment printers, 3D printers, and other advanced machinery.
Donna von Hoesslin Pu’u, Founder and Designer of Betty Belts and Ocean Ohana is an annual partner engaging with Vision to Marketplace. “This is our fourth year participating in this outstanding program. We just love working with the students on product development, entrepreneurship and manufacturing!”
Student-made products created through the Vision to Marketplace program are available for purchase at several downtown businesses, including Very Ventura Gift Shop & Gallery, Betty Belts, Ventura Visitor Center / Visit Ventura, Ecugreen, and Sea Things Ventura.
Businesses that are interested in participating in Vision to Marketplace in the future may contact Sarah Ayala, VUSD’s CTE Work-Based Learning Liaison at [email protected].
