Selma High students learn practical business skills through 'Bear Prints'

Monday, November 10, 2025
SELMA, Calif. (KFSN) -- Juniors and seniors at Selma High are learning what goes into running a business.

The work they do is meticulous. Every piece they peel away or line up and press is done with precision.

"Yeah, it's pretty stressful. There's a lot going on at one time sometimes, so you got to use your brain a lot," Senior Matthew Esparza said.

This is the second year he's been part of "Bear Prints."

It's a dual enrollment capstone class for the Marketing and Entrepreneurship Pathway.



"This class is a business, so you learn everything from it. It's like operating your own little business, and taking that from here to real life is going to help me a lot," Esparza said.

Business teacher Erin Niino says she treats the course as her student's first job.

"They still have to check in with me if they're going to be absent. They have to let me know ahead of time, just to give them that sense of responsibility and accountability that they would have out in the real world," Niino said.

Students work as a team to produce orders.

That includes creating the design, printing it out, peeling it, putting it on the item, pressing it and posting to social media.



Behind the scenes, students also have to keep inventory and calculate cost.

"We have discussions about setting our pricing, basically, how much desired stuff cost? What do we need to to set our price at to make make our money back, at least," Niino said.

Orders come in from different clubs on campus, local elementary schools and even the teachers union.

Orders have increased 25-30% annually during the four years the program has been around.

This semester, students are on track to create nearly 1,000 pieces.



All money raised goes back into the program.

"It's a win-win. We're helping our school community, our district community and it's all done by students," Niino said.

Depending on the complexity of the order, it takes anywhere from a week to a month to fulfill.

You can check out the Bear Prints Instagram page by clicking here.

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