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Chamber’s QUEST: Preparing Students for Business
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Business New Haven
5/14/2001
By: Priscilla Searles
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WALLINGFORD - Recognizing the extent of preparation young people need before they enter the workforce, the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce has devised a program that backs hands-on experience for students as well as small businesses.
The Quinnipiac Education Services Trust (QUEST) was actually first established in 1996. The only organization of its kind in the Wallingford/North Haven area, QUEST's mission is “to build a more educated and better trained workforce.”
Chamber members Joe Mirra and Gail McCormick got the ball rolling. “We give mini-business grants to schools in North Haven and Wallingford,” explains Mirra. “For example, we gave a grant for a school newspaper because it taught the students the business of running a newspaper, from writing to layout to circulation - everything that is involved in the production of a paper. The staff advisor recently received a cash award for the project, using the funds to improve the quality of the paper, making it more professional in appearance.”
Another QUEST project was seed money it provided to develop a popcorn business. Handicapped junior high school students developed a business plan, marketed it, developed the product and distribution and handled the financial end. “Last year was so successful they are expanding into soups,” explains Mirra. “It's a growth industry.”
The students take orders from other students and teachers then deliver the product to classrooms. The school has provided a space for the operation, and proceeds from sales are plowed back into the operation.
QUEST also provided seed money for a Young Astronauts Club. They sent two teachers to Space Camp; the pair came back and started the club for students in grades four through eight. From all reports, the club has had a very positive influence on the young people involved.
“We want to support anything that promotes business,” says QUEST Chairman Jim Vumbaco. “It could be a business venture for students or an adult business - as long as it fulfills our mission to provide a better workforce. We're trying to build up a base endowment so we're only giving grants with the earnings on the fund.
“We started with six charter members, all members of the [local] business community, who each put up $4,000,” Vumbaco explains. “That was the beginning. Now we do fundraising events such as our third annual Women's Golf Tournament [which will take place at the Tradition Golf Club in Wallingford May 22]. We also ran a wine-tasting and auction.”
The success of the first student projects seem to indicate that QUEST is on-target to ensure that some of today's youth are going to be better prepared for the workforce.
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