Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/57464
Spotlight
Restoring Hope
Business students at Bryant Univer- sity's College of Business in Smithfield, Rhode Island, have found two sur- prising ways to hone their business skills—saving forgotten old diners and helping local troubled teens. As members of the school's chapter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), these students have been working with the Rhode Island Training School for Youth (RITS) as part of the New Hope Diner Restoration Project. The project began through an
agreement between John Scott, a RITS administrator, and Daniel Zilka, director of the American Diner Museum in nearby Providence. They saw the project as a way to help inner-city teens caught up in the juvenile justice system. The idea was to teach the teens vocational skills, ranging from carpentry and welding to restaurant management, which they would use to help restore old
restaurants and market them to new buyers. The project plans to keep one restored diner as a restaurant and
learning lab for RITS students. What Zilka and Scott needed,
however, was a business plan to make it work. That's when they turned to David Greenan, a management professor at Bryant who serves as the school's SIFE faculty advisor. Greenan and his business students are helping to develop a three-part busi- ness plan for the New Hope project. That plan will include a strategy to help RITS sell the refurbished din- ers; a marketing approach to sell a new brand of coffee produced especially for the diners called New Hope Blend; and a business plan to help make profitable Rhode Island's famous Mike's Diner, a vintage late- night mobile diner that recently closed in Providence. The project will span several years
and involve several classes of business undergraduates. In the process, New Hope gives SIFE students the oppor- tunity to show these teens that "legal and legitimate business pursuits can indeed pay off and lead to success," says Greenan. The SIFE students are especially
Teenagers in the New Hope program learn to weld as part of their work fixing old diners.
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excited about developing a lesson plan designed to teach RITS students the fundamentals of market econom- ics, financial literacy, business ethics, entrepreneurship, and other skills key to business success. Bryant student volunteers will deliver the interactive
This is an opportunity to show these teens that legal and legiti- mate business pursuits can pay off and lead
to success. —David Greenan, Bryant University
lesson plan to the teens at RITS with the help of its teachers. "We're working with them to
provide a better understanding of the steps and planning necessary to develop and effectively sustain a business," says Julie Wentzell, who graduated in May. She adds that she hopes the RITS students will continue to develop these skills and someday use them to start and man- age their own businesses. The benefits of the New Hope
project are threefold, says Greenan. "It's a great way to help the train- ing school kids learn new skills, help our students apply their classroom experience, and help preserve an important slice of Americana," he says. At the same time, he adds, Bry- ant students "gain a better under- standing of people who live and work and struggle outside of their own campus and community. The project offers them an opportunity to engage in creative and meaningful out-of-the-box thinking." ■
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Bryant University students worked to restore an old diner and make it a profitable business.