Flash Print is a creative design and print store at Markville S.S. that gives students hands-on learning opportunities in starting and running their own businesses.
Students receive training on using the equipment, learn how to provide customer service and gain practical experience in launching their own businesses. Students in this Exploring Opportunities Program develop student-run businesses, working through business proposals, design, prototyping and production. They then market and sell their products at a school-wide maker market.
Students also had the opportunity to visit and learn from mentors in the YRDSB Print Shop. Students said the course helped them develop valuable skills and gave them confidence to pursue entrepreneurial ventures in the future.
"After being in this course, I'm surrounded by a bunch of other entrepreneurs, and I think it's very cool being in the same room and working together with them," said Kian, a Grade 12 student. "I think I've gained a lot of experience from this course, and one of my takeaways from this course is that you always have to be prepared. And it's a lot of hard work that goes into it, but it does pay off."
"My view of entrepreneurship is now one of a more viable path," said Vasilis, a Grade 12 student. Before I was ... very uncertain if I really wanted to be an entrepreneur or a business person in the future. And now that I have sat in the driver's seat of a business, I know for sure now that I do not want to work for anyone other than myself."
