The metal window cover rolls up, the blenders turn on, and The Thunderbrew is open for business. The cafe located in the business section of area two is open every morning before classes begin.
Business teacher Noah Graziano works behind the scenes to keep the store running.
“My responsibilities are more mostly to advise and guide the students on how, on what it takes and how to run a business,” said Graziano. “I believe that the more power you can give to the students, the more experience they get, the more knowledge they get.”
The cafe is mostly run by students. Even the finances are done by Accounting lll and Accounting lV students.
“They’ve been kind of tracking our daily finances,” Graziano said, “just kind of analyzing transactions that we’ve had to purchase ingredients and purchase the materials needed for the store.”
The shop is managed by senior Charlie Wehrbein. He works nearly every day in the morning and helps open the store.
“So we’ll get our doors up so everyone can see that we’re open,” Wehrbein said. “We’ll get our keys in the register. We’ll have our iPad and card dealer set up so it’s ready for orders, ready to be processed.”
Wehrbein said he has taken on a larger role in management in the past year. He works in all aspects of running the business, including hiring.
“We found a couple people that are coming to FBLA day, our first day, and we had some people that were interested,” Wehrbein said. “They came up to me, they talked to me. And you know, there’s a few people that lost interest. But there were two guys that have stayed with me ever since.”
Freshmen Jayden Orellana and Nathan Buchholz work nearly everyday alongside Wehrbien. Graziano sticks to the more advanced parts of running the business. The rest of it is completely up to the students.
“I’m pretty hands off,” Graziano said. “And [Wehrbein] just tells me what he needs from me, and then I just go and do it. So I would credit Charlie more for anything.”
Wehrbein is setting it up for success after he graduates at the end of the year.
“If anyone wants to join, I’m always hiring,” said Wehrbein. “You can work for us. Or if you just want to get a smoothie, that’s awesome too.”
