At Parlier High School, students are already fulfilling orders as part of Valley ROP's Student-Led Enterprise initiative, a program designed to extend career technical education beyond classroom assignments and into real-world operations.
In one classroom, welding students are busy earning certifications while fabricating products.
Across campus, plant science students tend to the school farm, growing fresh food for the cafeteria. Recently, the two groups joined forces to produce food carts for the school district.
Plant science instructor James Clawson said the collaboration began after he learned the district planned to purchase carts from an outside vendor.
"So when I saw the email come across, I was like, 'Why can't we get our students involved?'" Clawson said.
Both classes participate in the Valley ROP Student-Led Enterprise program, which allows students to manage real projects for real clients.
Through the grant-funded model, student work moves beyond mock exercises and into functioning business operations at schools throughout Central California.
Senior Christian Marmolejo helped lead the welding team during the project and said the experience strengthened more than just his technical abilities.
"I feel like my skills have developed a lot. Not just welding-wise, but business-wise," Marmolejo said.
He said students were involved in planning and coordination well beyond building the final product.
"The thing was surprising was just learning how to, pretty much, manage the projects, learning how to run the schedule, make sure these projects were coming out on time," he said.
The effort also highlighted the importance of collaboration across disciplines.
"So they did all the welding project work, and then my plant science kids went back and did all the construction, woodworking and assembling the whole project," Clawson said.
Valley ROP Superintendent Fabrizio Lofaro said the initiative gives students a rare opportunity to test business concepts and learn from mistakes in a supportive setting.
"Once they graduate, not only they have their technical knowledge of their pathway, their skills, they have their industry certifications, but now they have one or two years of experience of actually running a business," Lofaro said.
Marmolejo said the experience has given him confidence to pursue entrepreneurship in the future and hopes younger students see what is possible.
"Not only did we work on them and it's pretty much our sweat, our hard work in these projects," he said. "But it's cool to see that the future generations are going to be able to look at the project and pretty much see what we have built and, hopefully, they get inspired as well to join the same program."
Parlier's projects are just two examples of the initiative.
Valley ROP officials said all 19 student-led enterprises will be showcased this fall during the organization's 55th anniversary celebration.
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