drive to thrive final
TRANSCRIPT
2016
ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROMOTION PROJECT
Drive to Thrive
Appleton North DECA
Appleton North High School
5000 N. Ballard Rd. Appleton, WI 54913
Jada Taylor and Rileigh Ostrom
Table of Contents I. Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1
II. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 2
A. Description of Local DECA Chapter ................................................................................. 2
B. Description of the School and Community .................................................................... 4
III. Management of Activity(ies) Targeted at Outside Audience ................................................ 5
A. Purpose of the Activity(ies) ................................................................................................ 6
B. Planning and Organization of Activity(ies) .................................................................... 8
C. Implementation of Activity(ies) ....................................................................................... 13
IV. Evaluation and Recommendations ........................................................................................... 19
A. Evaluation of Campaign .................................................................................................... 19
B. Recommendations for Additional New Activity(ies) for Future Campaigns ....... 23
V. Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................... 27
VI. Appendix .......................................................................................................................................... 28
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I. Executive Summary
Our Mission Through an innovative teen entrepreneurship movement called Drive to Thrive,
we aim to reach high school students through informational seminars, motivational speakers, and real world experiences. Drive to Thrive Objectives
Create awareness among high school students about small business start-up and operations.
Ignite passion, energy and creativity towards entrepreneurship through real world experiences.
Create a connection between students and Appleton area community members. Drive to Thrive Campaign Organization
In order to stay true to our mission and campaign objectives, we created an organizational plan of outcomes. The entire campaign was designed and organized in order to meet campaign objectives and fulfill our mission.
Drive to Thrive Campaign Implementation
Events focused around Community Connection met the objective of creating real world experience for students by attending public events where students were able to learn how to network with prominent entrepreneurs in the Fox Cities.
Brand Management worked on creating a recognizable brand for students that reflects Drive to Thrive’s mission statement and objectives.
The Speaker Series enabled us to inspire an entrepreneurial mindset in our students through Drive to Thrive’s handpicked entrepreneurial speakers. We carefully selected top-quality speakers that would communicate the type of passion and energy we wanted to instill into our students.
It's not often middle school students think about business. By bringing entrepreneurship lessons to them, Drive to Thrive was able to ignite their curiosity.
The Idea Challenge allowed Appleton North High School North DECA members to embrace the creative side of entrepreneurship by giving students the opportunity to create their own product and fully embrace the idea behind the product.
Evaluation of Drive to Thrive
In order to determine whether or not Drive to Thrive met its objectives, we engaged participants with a survey and counted the number of students we reached through our activities and events. Overall, we were thoroughly satisfied with our entrepreneurship promotion campaign. We reached approximately 320 students through our Speaker Sessions and community events. This does not include the amount of exposure we also received through social media. From our survey, many students said they learned how to be successful overall and gained a more in depth
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understanding about what it takes to own a business. One of our goals for our campaign was to help create an inner drive in students to be successful so we are pleased to hear that participants have been able to learn more about that.
Recommendations for Drive to Thrive Based on our participant feedback, we were able to make the following
recommendations for continuous improvement in relation to Drive to Thrive. One thing we would definitely implement is social media accounts that are dedicated for Drive to Thrive. For our campaign, we utilized our high school DECA Chapter’s social media accounts. Although it was somewhat effective, we would recommend maintaining brand consistency by creating our own media accounts. Through our own social media platforms, we will be able to promote the events to our targeted audience and showcase entrepreneurs at our school and in our community. The area we live in is thriving with businesses and entrepreneurs, so in the future we would try to reach out and connect more with entrepreneurs and small businesses in our very own community.
II. Introduction
A. Description of Local DECA Chapter
DECA has been a formal organization at Appleton North High School since 1996,
a year after Appleton North opened. Organized by Appleton North’s very own business
and marketing teacher, Cyndi Dechant, every year our Chapter continues to grow in
members and alumni. With over 100 members, our Chapter strives to educate students
about career possibilities in business. Our Chapter meets the first Tuesday of every
month to discuss community service events, field trips, other member’s DECA projects
and more.
Leadership and leadership development is very important to our Chapter. We
have a lot of active members, some of which are our officers. Such leadership positions
include the President, Member Relations, Public Relations Coordinator, Business
Partnerships, Historian, Community Service, and Social Media. In addition, we have two
school managers who order merchandise weekly, design the store layout, and manage
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student workers. Our school store is called “The Lightning Bolt.” By having a school
store, students are able to learn the responsibilities of having a job as well as engage in
operating a retail establishment. Students who work in the school store must be taking
at least one business or marketing class taught by the DECA advisor, Cyndi Dechant.
Appleton North DECA takes pride in serving the greater Appleton community
through annual events that are put on by our Chapter. Every Thanksgiving, our Chapter
makes pumpkin pies for families in need throughout our community through DECA
Gives Back. In 2015, over 20 students gathered to make 55 pies for families in need.
Another way our Chapter is involved in the community is by participating in the Polar
Plunge. The Polar Plunge is an annual event where community members can jump in
freezing water to raise money for Special Olympics Wisconsin Athletes. Our Chapter
encourages members to participate annually not only to raise money and awareness for
a good cause, but to create
bonding within our Chapter.
In addition to
engaging with the
community, Appleton North
DECA has a reputation of
excellence in competition. At
DECA Districts this year,
Appleton North DECA had a
total of 67 medalists. Out of
Image 1: Appleton North DECA at Districts 2016
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those 67, our Chapter had 26 finishers in the top four. Then out of the 24, we had 13
automatic state qualifiers. The best our Chapter has done since starting in 1996. With
this success, our Chapter focuses on holding weekly informational meetings to focus on
preparing for competition. As our Chapter continues to grow, we are proud of all of the
work and accomplishments our members achieve as they stride for success.
B. Description of the School and Community
Built in 1995, Appleton North High school is one of three high schools in the
Appleton Area School District. With over 1600 students, Appleton North is known for its
outstanding theater program, athletic performance, and academic excellence. There are
over 50 clubs and extracurricular activities available to students at Appleton North. This
provides many diverse opportunities for students to discover their interests and thrive. In
2013, the US News and World Report awarded Appleton North the silver medal, for
ranking among the top high schools in the state.
The Fox Cities is a flourishing community along the Fox River that includes the
city of Appleton. With a population of 73,971, Appleton is the 6th largest community in
Wisconsin and is known for its thriving downtown, live music throughout the summer
and many small businesses. The Fox Cities is home to many large companies including
Thrivent Financial, Kimberly-Clark and Appvion. Appleton is known for its paper industry
and being the home of Harry Houdini, a famous magician and escape artist. Summers
in downtown Appleton are always busy with Saturday morning Farm Markets that
stretch down College Avenue, the Annual Mile of Music Festival, and different Art on the
Town events that involve community members. Also located downtown is Lawrence
University, a private Liberal Arts college. A wide variety of events including
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performances at the Performing Arts Center and Octoberfest bring in many different
types of people to our community from all around Wisconsin.
III. Management of Activity(ies) Targeted at Outside Audience
Figure 1: Organization of Campaign
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Figure 2: Rate of Startup Activity in the United States
A. Purpose of the Activity(ies)
Entrepreneurship in our nation is slowly on the rise after a recent decline in
startup activity over the past five years due to the Great Recession. Drive to Thrive aims
to create awareness and ignite passion for entrepreneurship with teens in the Appleton
Area School District in hope of positively impacting the number of entrepreneurs and
start-up businesses in Wisconsin in the future. According to the 2015 Kauffman Index,
Wisconsin has moved down five spots since 2014 to be ranked dead last for the rate of
startup activity in comparison to the rest of the United States. Drive to Thrive promotes
a spirit of striving for success. Therefore, by inspiring an entrepreneurial mindset among
teens in our school district, we hope to make a positive impact on Wisconsin’s future
rankings for the rate of startup activity. Not only will initiatives like Drive to Thrive this
hopefully contribute to improving Wisconsin’s ranking, these efforts may also grow our
state’s but it will also grow our state’s economy by increasing the opportunities for
employment.
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Our Drive to Thrive entrepreneurship promotion campaign strives to create and
generate awareness of opportunities that provide informational and hands on activities
to educate our generation about entrepreneurship. These activities assisted in
stimulating creative thinking among our peers. The combination of our Speaker Series,
Community Connection events, Entrepreneurial sessions and the DECA Idea Challenge
provided us with the opportunity to communicate our message in a variety of different
ways to appeal to different groups within our target market.
With our younger target market, we aim to cultivate creativity in younger minds,
emphasize that entrepreneurship is attainable at any point in one’s life and shed a light
on potential education/career paths after high school. By participating in the DECA Idea
Challenge, marketing classes were able to utilize their creativity through the design of a
product made primarily with cardboard. To emphasize that entrepreneurship is
attainable at any age, we chose speakers for our Drive to Thrive Speaker Series who
ranged from ages fourteen to fifty. Their stories emphasized that you can become an
entrepreneur at any age regardless of previous work or school history. With this
information, our audience gained more in depth knowledge about entrepreneurship and
become exposed to a unique profession.
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B. Planning and Organization of Activity(ies)
Community Connection
Drive to Thrive connected students to the community by participating in events
with an entrepreneurial concept. On October 2nd, 2015, Drive to Thrive attended
America-the Makers. The event was marketed by Drive to Thrive to students enrolled in
marketing classes at Appleton North as well as student interns at Willems Marketing.
Willems Marketing is a marketing firm where students in the Appleton Area School
District can intern to gain experience in the marketing field. This year, there are a total
of 16 students participating in the internship. As coordinators of Drive to Thrive, we
contacted the Appleton Area School District school board to get the field trip approved
and coordinated transportation through a local bus company.
Another way Drive to Thrive coordinators were involved into the community was
by taking a total of 21 students to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s annual
Business Model Contest. Drive to Thrive raised awareness by designing an
informational flyer and distributed it to marketing classes at Appleton North. We
developed a form using Google Classroom for students to register for the event. This
form helped us keep track of participation for securing field trip approval with the school
board as well as determining transportation needs. Because this was an after school
event, all participants were emailed information about meeting at Appleton North and
the transportation to/from Oshkosh, which is about 30 minutes from Appleton.
Drive to Thrive developed and offered a Teen Entrepreneurship Seminar at
Willems Marketing for seniors in the Appleton Area School District who were involved in
internships based on their career aspirations. We partnered with Willems Marketing to
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host the event and worked with Dave Willems to coordinate the event date, times and
location. Next, we identified a team of speakers that would be most relevant for the
senior interns. We contacted each speaker about the event, determined their interest in
participation and confirmed their availability. A total of three speakers were planned for
a two-hour seminar period. Students who participated in the event are seniors in the
Appleton Area School District that have internships at businesses in the Fox Cities.
Since there were 60 students registered to attend, we designed a schedule that allowed
all of the students to rotate among meeting rooms so they could hear all three speakers.
Along with the schedule, we included speaker bios and a description of what it's like to
be an intern at Willems Marketing.
Brand Management
The focus of the brand was to create and incorporate a recognizable brand into
all of our efforts in the Appleton
Area School District. The idea
behind the name Drive to Thrive
was to inspire students to go out
of their comfort zone and strive
for success. We created the
image to portray being on the
road to success by adding the
dashed road to the logo and the
map pin point on the right of the Image 2: Drive to Thrive Speaker Series Template
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road to mark the success of today's high school students is the future. By instilling that
thought process, Drive to Thrive is inspiring students to work towards their goals.
Drive to Thrive coordinators felt it was critical to have a theme that would
represent the project and connect the brand throughout all of its events. We created
recognizable and consistent brand by designing a speaker bio template that was used
for every Drive to Thrive entrepreneurial speaker event. Every time there was a
speaker, the speaker bio template was used to market events to students via social
media. With a consistent template, Drive to Thrive created a recognizable source of
relaying information regarding specific event speakers. In order to inform students about
Drive to Thrive events at school, the coordinators used templated promotional materials
to decorate multiple display cases in high traffic areas such as the school commons. For
weeks, Drive to Thrive was featured in recognizable and innovative ways to increase
awareness about the brand promise of our organization. To advertise events to the
student body and staff, Drive to Thrive wrote announcements for school announcers to
present daily. And finally, social media was used to market specifically to our target
market. We used our DECA chapter’s Twitter and Instagram to reach other chapters in
our school district as well as our students. Drive to Thrive also was promoted through
active participants in the organization’s personal social media. Drive to Thrive
coordinators placed great importance on creating and thoroughly communicating a
recognizable and consistent brand throughout all Drive to Thrive events.
Speaker Series
Drive to Thrive coordinators believed using the knowledge and experience of
current entrepreneurs would be important to accomplish the goals of the project. We
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organized and developed a speaker
series so entrepreneurs could share their
expertise with Appleton North students.
The organization of the Speaker Series
included contacting Appleton North to get
permission to host Drive to Thrive events
in the school’s Large Group Instruction
classroom. We presented the Speaker
Series idea to Appleton North’s principal,
James Huggins, and got permission to
proceed. Next, we examined space
around the school to identify locations that
would be suitable to host a speaker and
approximately 10-25 participants. We
selected the Large Group Instruction classroom because the layout of the room fit well
with our vision for the events. We then conducted research about topics relating to
entrepreneurship to determine the range of potential topics for speakers to address. We
arranged the topics in a logical sequence and brainstormed potential speakers who
would be able to present on the selected themes/topics. We constructed an email to
send out to our list of potential speakers to raise interest. Our email simply stated who
we were and included a brief description of our project. Once we received confirmation
from six different entrepreneurs, we engaged in some dialog with the potential speakers
to narrow the topics for each of their presentations. It was important for us to create a
Image 3: Drive to Thrive's first speakers, Jordan Rhodes & Dan Brosman
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series of diverse topics that covered various aspects of entrepreneurship while making
sure the speakers would not have a lot of overlap in their presentations. We also made
certain the speakers we invited had different backgrounds as far as their involvement in
and experiences with entrepreneurship.
Our follow-up email consisted of a detailed letter further explaining our project
and a calendar, in which each speaker had access to sign-up for a specific date and list
the topic they were presenting. Once all speakers signed up for a date, we sent yet
another email thanking them in advance for their time and providing them with more
specific details about the day of their presentation.
Entrepreneurial Session
We participated in a brainstorming session with the Willems Marketing students
to determine which concepts of entrepreneurship would be important to students at the
middle school level. After brainstorming, we split into five teams and each team was
assigned to cover one concept. Each group created informational PowerPoint
presentations as well as hands on activities that suited our audience. All of these
presentations were delivered over a time period of two weeks and presented to two
different Family and Consumer Education classes at Wilson Middle School.
Idea Challenge
The Idea Challenge, created by the DECA organization, is an annual contest
presented to elementary through college aged students and DECA Chapters across the
world. Drive to Thrive decided to implement this activity in marketing classes at
Appleton North High School. By creating a project outline and rubric, the students could
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easily determine what steps were necessary to completing the challenge accurately.
The class was divided into groups of four or five students ranging from grades 9-12.
Before the Idea Challenge mystery item was revealed, the groups participated in an
activity in which they were able to utilize their creativity to design a product out of
common items.
C. Implementation of Activity(ies)
Community Connection
The first community event attended by Drive to Thrive was America-the Makers
Entrepreneurial Summit held at the Meyer Theater in Green Bay. Hosted by Reid
Ribble, a wide range of topics was presented by known entrepreneurs in Wisconsin.
Those topics included: Qualities of a Mentor, Guidance You Can Trust, Balancing Your
Growing Business and Your Family, Branding You in Your Idea, Success vs. Failure,
and What You Wish You Knew Before.
The audience members represented a wide range of ages. Along with our group
of twenty students from Appleton North, there were other high school students, college
students, and aspiring businessmen and women attending the summit. Attendees were
able to network with the speakers as well as fellow community members searching for
more knowledge on business.
Another community event Drive to Thrive coordinators attended was the 2nd
Annual UW-Oshkosh Business Model contest. Students enrolled at the University could
submit their business plans and ideas. The top ten were then chosen to be presented in
front of a live audience and a panel of judges. Each with a small window of time to
present and an even smaller window of time for questions from the judges, students
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were able to see all the work behind creating a business model. With a wide range of
business concepts, students were blown away with how many products/services that
can be made into a business. While the panel of judges was deciding on the top
competitors, Craig Culver also
presented about his business Culver’s
and there was a time period for
questions by the audience. By going out
into the community, students were able
to see entrepreneurship in action at the
college level and community level. This
also instilled the idea that
entrepreneurship is a thriving career option.
For the Teen Entrepreneurship seminar at Willems Marketing, all three speakers
presented to over 60 students from the Appleton Area School District who are involved
in internships throughout the Fox Valley. Because we partnered with Willems, each
student received a cup that said Willems Marketing on it along with a packet with
speaker bios, rotation schedule, a summary of Willems Marketing and a name tag. By
creating this event, Drive to Thrive was able to help a target market of students, who
may not have thought much about entrepreneurship, to consider and explore the field of
entrepreneurship as a potential career option.
Brand Management
Image 4: Students at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Business Model Contest
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Drive to Thrive worked to make a consistent logo and theme for all marketing
pieces into the public. Our brand management was implemented through our Speaker
Series bios which were handed out at every session to introduce the speaker for the
following week.
Speaker Series
For six weeks, speakers came to Appleton North every Monday from 6:30pm to
8:00pm. Each speaker session generated student interest. From the Speaker Series
alone, Drive to Thrive reached an
audience over 100 students. The
day before every session, we
created posts on social media about
the Speaker Series and also sent
reminder emails to our speakers. On
the day of each event, Drive to
Thrive also focused on marketing
through word of mouth to
classmates. To prepare for every event, Drive to Thrive printed a speaker bio for the
next week’s speaker, arranged beverages for the speaker/audience, and prepared the
speaking space. During the sessions, we took notes on the speaker’s presentation while
engaging in their activities. Some sessions we were recorded and posted to our
marketing and DECA Google Classroom pages.
Image 5: Brian Gottlieb, founder of Tundraland, speaking at Drive to Thrives second session.
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Entrepreneurial Lessons
Once each group prepared a lesson plan for their appointed theme, it was time to
present to the middle schoolers. The first group introduced the topic of
entrepreneurship. The presenters discussed with the students what entrepreneurship
was and how to start a business through a Prezi. The presentation ended with a group
activity. The groups consisted of five students. Each group was given a large piece of
paper and a set of markers. The students were asked to create an entrepreneur using
the information they had just learned. They had to give the entrepreneur clothing,
attributes, characteristics, the environment and other features that their entrepreneur
would possess.
During the second entrepreneurship lesson, the students focused on the process
of a business plan and the financial side of owning a business. First, marketing students
explained was the components of business plan. Participants were also provided with
examples and videos. Then the marketing students helped the middle schoolers
brainstorm possible businesses and later incorporated those ideas into a business plan.
Afterwards, the marketing students used a Powerpoint to explain the financial aspects
and students learned by applying the concepts to hands-on activities.
The third entrepreneurship lesson emphasized marketing concepts. The
marketing students opened the presentation discussing different social media platforms.
At the end of the lesson, the middle schoolers were split into small groups where they
were given a social media platform and a business in which they had to come up with a
creative marketing strategy useful for that specific platform.
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On the fourth entrepreneurship lesson, the marketing students presented about
the management and operations side of running a small business. The lesson was
mostly delivered by a PowerPoint presentation that had allocated time for delicate
creation. Then the marketing students facilitated group activities that revolved around
getting groups of students to work together to come to a professional solution to a
problematic situation we had construed for their capacity.
During the fifth entrepreneurship lesson, the theme was “creating your own
business”. There was a presentation designed to walk the students through starting
their own business. The students were given the theme of health for their product. Each
group made a list of possible products they could create/sell in the health field. Next,
they narrowed their ideas down to one and created a name for the product, company
name, product description, mission statement, and a final marketing piece they drew on
paper.
Each entrepreneurship lesson had a different theme and set of activities. It was
important to the Willems Marketing Students to create presentations that were
interesting enough to the middle schoolers while still getting the message and concept
of entrepreneurship across. A lot of time and planning were put into developing these
lessons and activities. Drive to Thrive coordinators are continuing their teaching at
middle schools in the upcoming semesters.
Idea Challenge
To help instill creativity among our peers, marketing classes at Appleton North
High School participated in the DECA Idea Challenge during Global Entrepreneurship
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Week. Groups of four or five students, in grades 9-12, worked together to create a
product made from the mystery item, cardboard. Before the Idea Challenge mystery
item was announced, the groups tested their creativity by designing a product using
seven common household items. In one class period, the students had to establish a
target market for their product, construct a prototype utilizing all seven items, develop a
name for their invention and present their finished product to the class. This activity
prepared the students for actual Idea Challenge. Once the mystery item was revealed,
each group had just eight days to brainstorm an idea, construct a prototype, and create
a short video explaining the construction of the product and it’s benefits. Students
submitted their video online to DECA and presented their finished products to the class.
Total there were fourteen different submissions from Appleton North High School.
Image 6: Srudents and their finished Idea Challenge product.
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Figure 3: S.W.O.T. Analysis
.
IV. Evaluation and Recommendations
A. Evaluation of Campaign
Over the course of the Drive to Thrive campaign, middle school and high school
students were given the opportunity to learn more about entrepreneurship in our very
own community. Our Drive to Thrive entrepreneurship promotion campaign reached
over 320 Appleton Area School District students. This included those who attended the
Speaker Series, America the Makers Entrepreneurial Summit, University of Wisconsin
Oshkosh Business Model Contest, Teen Entrepreneurship Seminars, Middle School
Entrepreneurial Sessions and participants in the DECA Idea Challenge.
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Community Connection
Drive to Thrive greatly values entrepreneurship and it was especially meaningful
to have our audiences easily make connections with it. We strived to create many
opportunities for our target audience to gain exposure to real entrepreneurs and
entrepreneurship in our own community. Attending the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Business Model Contest was one highlight of our campaign that brought our audience
into the community. Not only did students get to see college-aged students pitch their
business plans, but they also learned more about the entrepreneurship program at a
university only 30 minutes from our home.
The America the Makers Entrepreneurial Summit was another event students
attended that was close to home.
Students spent the day hearing stories
of entrepreneurs from eastern
Wisconsin. This event was especially
successful because students were
able to network with the speakers,
including Wisconsin Congressman
Reid Ribble, and other community members who attended the event.
The Teen Entrepreneurship Seminar was a success because Drive to Thrive was
able to reach a target market of students who were not looking to pursue business.
Drive to Thrive was able to instill the entrepreneurship mindset into students of the
Appleton Area School District.
Image 7: Students at America-the Makers Entrepreneurial Summit
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Brand Management
Our brand gained exposure to our target audience through a variety of social
media outlets including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Drive to Thrive was
successful in managing our brand because we maintained consistency with our posts,
which all included our logo and our colors, as well as kept a positive image throughout
all social media platforms. Drive to Thrive’s announcements regarding our upcoming
sessions on our school’s daily announcement system helped us spread awareness.
These announcements were also directly emailed to every student so with this type of
promotion, we were able to reach our entire student body. Although the entire student
body of Appleton North did not attend our events, we were able to generate interest and
spread awareness to our target audience. Through text alerts, Drive to Thrive sent out
event reminders to students a few days prior to each event. We reached marketing
students, DECA members and other Drive to Thrive students as well as parents through
these alerts.
Speaker Series
Our main event was our Drive to Thrive Speaker Series. With these six sessions
alone, we reached an audience over 120 students. The Speaker Series was successful
in that we brought in a wide variety of speakers who appealed to many different groups
within our target market. We had entrepreneurs who had just started their college
careers all the way to entrepreneurs who are thriving in their established business
ventures. After the sessions were finished, we sent out a brief survey to attendees
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asking how many sessions they attended, what they had learned, whether or not they
would attended another session or recommend the session to another peer and
requested they rating their overall satisfaction on a scale from one to five. According to
our survey responses, our audience attended an average of three speaker sessions.
Recurring themes that attendees said they learned more about were the different costs
that go into making a product and that it takes a lot more to owning a business than just
the product. We hoped to have had even more students attend our speaker sessions,
but we were able to video record our sessions and post them on the DECA and
Marketing Google Classroom pages for students to view at a later time. All who
responded to our survey said they would recommend the Speaker Series to other peers
and attend another session if the opportunity was presented.
Entrepreneurial Sessions
Reaching a total of 60 students, Drive to Thrive was able to educate middle
schoolers about entrepreneurship. A strength of the middle school entrepreneurial
lessons was that Drive to Thrive was able to collaborate with 16 student interns from
Willems Marketing to present the lessons. By doing this, Drive to Thrive was able to
engage students at not only the middle school level but the high school level as well. A
weakness the marketing students faced was simply the audience itself and the
challenges related to teaching middle school students. With a shorter attention span
than high schoolers, the marketing students aimed to create hands-on learning
opportunities for the students. After conducting the middle school lessons, teachers in
the school district invited Drive to Thrive to speak to other classes. As the year
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continues, Drive to Thrive plans to schedule more middle school lessons at all four
middle schools in the school district.
Idea Challenge
We had great success in implementing the DECA Idea Challenge at Appleton
North High School. Over 50 students participated in this activity. The classes were able
to challenge their creativity and utilize their entrepreneurial skills by creating an original
product constructed out of cardboard. The students developed eco-friendly products
that filled a specific need of their choosing which helped promote brand sustainability.
The groups really enjoyed this challenge since they had some freedom in what they
were creating. This project was a great representation of entrepreneurship. Students
had to work with their groups to establish a target market, brainstorm product ideas,
create the prototype, and create an informational video. All though this does not include
all aspects of entrepreneurship, it gave the students a small taste of what it takes to
start up a company/product.
B. Recommendations for Additional New Activity(ies) for
Future Campaigns
Community Connection
Drive to Thrive highly values opportunities in our community so we would like to
seek out and bring more hands-on learning opportunities to students in the Appleton
Area School District. One way we can bring entrepreneurship based events to our target
market is by hosting a WMC’s Business World which is a series of activities that
involves students to create a prototype and market it all in one day. This is a great
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program that offers the tools and inspiration for individuals to make their very own start
up business. By implementing this program into Drive to Thrive, students will have the
opportunity to engage in hands on experience with classmates while maintaining
consistency with our objectives and mission statement.
Brand Management
Since social media is so prevalent in our society today, we would want to create
a Twitter and Instagram page solely for Drive to Thrive. On this social media outlet, we
would post about upcoming events and create polls to research our target market’s
needs and wants. In order to showcase our upcoming events and students learning
more about entrepreneurship, we would utilize Instagram. This photo-sharing app would
be a fantastic outlet to feature our speaker sessions, and other community events we
are attending/have attended. Having our own, dedicated social media accounts would
provide us with the ability to interact directly with our target audience and establish
brand credibility.
Another way we would like to promote our brand in the future is through our
school newspaper, the Noctiluca. Many students at Appleton North read the school
newspaper either in print, online and/or follow the Noctiluca Twitter account which posts
updates on current events at Appleton North.
In a future campaign, we would like to create a blog for Drive to Thrive. On this
media outlet, we would write up announcements for and reflections of our events. This
type of social media is a great way to showcase our speakers and their stories,
especially our high school speakers. Our audience would be able to discover more
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about our speakers and entrepreneurs in our community and school. The blog will also
be helpful for those who missed a session or wanted to learn more about a future event.
Speaker Series
For a future campaign, we would like to increase the use of social media to
promote the Drive to Thrive Speaker Series. With a dedicated Drive to Thrive social
media account, we would be able to post weekly reminders and updates regarding our
Speaker Series and track interest through account followers. On our Twitter page, we
would like to have been able to post links to our blogs that showcase our speaker’s
biographies. By going online with the speaker biographies, we will be able to reach
more of our audience through the wide exposure on social media. One last idea we
have in order to increase the reach of our Speaker Series would be to have an online
live stream feed of each session. Using live podcasts, if students are unable to attend
one of our sessions in person, they could still view the presentation from home.
Entrepreneurial Sessions
Another lesson we learned is that it is difficult for high schoolers to take time out
of their school day to teach middle school students. For the future, Drive to Thrive would
like to host a day camp for middle schoolers to be immersed into entrepreneurship for
one whole day. That way, the high school presenters would not have to miss as much
school. The middle schoolers would also engage in learning about entrepreneurship for
one whole day versus the information being spread out over a span of five days. In this
format, there would also be more time for in-depth projects and hands-on learning.
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Idea Challenge
For a future campaign, we would like to increase exposure for the DECA Idea
Challenge. This year, only two marketing classes took place in this challenge and we
would like to expand that to every marketing class, to DECA students and to other
students who may be interested. Also, with social media accounts used primarily by
Drive to Thrive, we would be able to tweet about the challenge and showcase past
entries of students. We would like as many students as possible to learn about the
opportunity to be a part of this exciting entrepreneurial challenge.
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V. Bibliography
"Appleton, WI Real Estate and Demographic Information." Appleton WI Real Estate
Information. Location Inc., 2016. Web. 31 Jan. 2016.
Fairlie, Robert W., Arnobio Morelix, E. J. Reedy, and Joshua Russell. "Startup Activity
Reports." The Kauffman Index: Startup Activity | National Trends (2015): 5-15.
Kauffman Foundation. Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 2016. Web. 24 Jan.
2016.
Fairlie, Robert W., Arnobio Morelix, E. J. Reedy, and Joshua Russell. "Startup Activity
Reports." The Kauffman Index: Startup Activity | State Trends (2015): 13-67.
Kauffman Foundation. Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 2016. Web. 24 Jan.
2016.
Gallagher, Kathleen. "Wisconsin Comes in Last in Kauffman's Entrepreneur Rankings."
Wisconsin Comes in Last in Kauffman's Entrepreneur Rankings. Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel, 13 June 2015. Web. 24 Jan. 2016.
"OCTOBERFEST APPLETON." Home. N.p., 2016. Web. 31 Jan. 2016.
"Video Challenges." DECA Inc. N.p., 2016. Web. 31 Jan. 2016.
"Welcome to the Fox Cities." Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce. Accrinet, 2016. Web.
31 Jan. 2016.
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VI. Appendix
Drive to Thrive: Entrepreneurship Promotion Project
The Drive to Thrive Entrepreneurship Plan is designed to promote entrepreneurship to our peers,
community members, and middle school aged students. Our project is going to consist of a mini
Business World and a six-week Entrepreneurship Series, Drive to thrive: Road Tripping to success. This is
where you, as an entrepreneur, come in!
We would like to feature you at one of our entrepreneurship sessions. This session would take place on
a Monday night starting with the 19th of October and will run through November.
If you are interested in this speaking opportunity to brand yourself with young business students in
Appleton and share your knowledge and experience in the business world, please email me by
September 28th, 2015. We hope you consider promoting entrepreneurship while being a keynote
speaker at one of our five-week Entrepreneurship Sessions.
Drive to Thrive Speaker Series
Appleton North High School/Room 1101
Example
October 19th
John Smith 6:30 to
8:00pm
johnsmith@yahoo.
com
555-5555
Financial
aspects
Date Name of
Entrepreneur
Session Time Contact Information Topic you are
interested in
presenting on
October 19th Dan Brosman &
Jordan Rhodes
6:30 to 8:00pm [email protected] Intro to E-Ship /
Idea Generation
October 26th Brian Gottlieb 6:30 to 8:00pm Starting a Business
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November 2nd Tim Lamers 6:30 to 8:00pm [email protected] Franchising
November 9th Jim Ostrom 6:30 to 8:00pm The Real Cost
November 16th Blake Ebben &
Keshawn Henning
6:30 to 8:00pm [email protected]
Creating Stand Up
& College
Opportunities
November 23rd Brad Konopa 6:30 to 8:00pm [email protected] Am I built for this?