Students from the business department officially unveiled an apparel and assorted merchandise vending machine on Monday, March 6. Dubbed the “Bird Box”, this is another venture into entrepreneurship, a collaboration between the management and leadership classes and marketing classes. 

Business teacher Pat Hinkle said the Bird Box is the first of its kind in Nebraska. 

“Our hope is that we can promote it well enough that other schools are going to want to have this as part of their curriculum,” Hinkle said. “And then we will be the leaders in showing them how to set it up, how to use it in the classroom for maximum exposure, education, real world experience, all those good things you want your students to have.”

The project is approved and funded by the Perkins grant, which allocates funds for Career and Technical Education. Originally, it was hoped that the Bird Box would be up and running in the first semester, however the delivery of the machine took longer than expected. 

“We’ve already had the CEO and owner of Spirit Box Zoom with us and he will be meeting with our classes on a monthly basis,” Hinkle said. “And then my teams will be meeting with him at their discretion, when they want to sit down and organize a meeting, they will schedule it just like you do in the business world.”

Hinkle said that the student leadership dived right into the project second semester with planning logistics and product stocking. She said that the experience of learning how to run a business is beneficial and is allowing her students to gain hands-on experience.

“We have a curriculum that goes with the Spirit Box Company,” Hinkle said. “And so I’m excited to dive into their curriculum and really peel apart the layers of what this box can do for us.”

So far, there aren’t any concrete projections for the success of the Bird Box but the students and Hinkle are hopeful.

“I’m really excited to see what the students can do with this,” Hinkle said. “The sky’s the limit.”