Blog

“We want to have a sustainable project that is usable for many years in the future.” are the words of Mayla Colacchi and Sydney Jones as they look forwards to the beginning of the third trimester in which they will start the development of the Snack Shack Cross Grade Learning Opportunity (CGLO). Our CGLO is a brand new garden wall which will be built on the westernmost wall of the new La Paz ‘Tenorio’ campus, a new addition of classrooms hosting 6th, 7th, and 8th grade tiburones. The project hopes to provide a layer of insulation to one of the classrooms and make the new campus a little more beautiful.

Sydney and Mayla have been heavily involved with The Snack Shack since the beginning of the year, when they built a brand new revamped Snack Shack sign completely out of recycled bottle caps. “That sign shows creativity and our love and support of the environment” says Snack Shack CEO, Catalina Gutierrez de Valle. The project was completed in January and is praised by many for bringing color to the Snack Shack. Some may even say it opened a door into the sustainable and creative project ideas that Sydney and Mayla have had recently.

The project ties into the Snack Shack Corporate Social Responsibility aspect, which also includes current projects with managing waste, fighting climate change, and raising awareness by using our platform.

Going back to the wall at the Tenorio campus, they are currently hard at work finishing details and refining the project to be perfect. In a recent interview with the pair they reported,

“We’ve noticed that the school more needs student involvement and a more nature focused campus. It was by the likes of sustainable organizations worldwide that we first got the idea for the project. We hope that it should make the school smell and look nice.” Their vision includes reusing plastic bottles, one of the worlds most prevalent garbage items to plant dill, basil, rosemary, and mint in. The bottles will be filled with nutrient rich soil, mixed by the 7th grade anchor project class and then have seeds and plants put inside. The bottles will be put in a custom frame in the wall, assuring that they get plenty of sun and water throughout the year.

Mayla and Sydney have said that they hope that future generations in the store can utilize the resources when making paninis, smoothies, and other fresh products. Also, they are hoping to sell packaged fresh herbs at the feria to collect more money for the Snack Shack.

As we start the third trimester of operations, we hope that the project is successful. If all of our objectives happen than in a mere couple months time, the westernmost wall of the Tenorio campus will be occupied by a brand new Snack Shack sustainability project.

As former United States president, Theodore Roosevelt once said, “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” This quote has served as a basis throughout the interview and job assignation process we have gone through over the last few months in The Snack Shack.

As we welcome in our new CEO, Catalina Gutierrez, as well as our CFO (Chief Financial Officer) Rachel Harris, our COO (Chief Operating Officer) Emerson Cliver, our CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Stacy Bustos, and yours truly, CTO (Chief Technology Officer) Gabe Johnson, we reflect on how meaningful the process of selection has been. Starting with our resumes, we learned how to effectively showcase our own skills and accomplishments in a complementary way, specifically one that could help us explain ourselves in our interview. I specifically remember my personal excitement as I crafted my resume, looking up how to make the best resume possible, how to interview, and how to “win” the race of getting the CEO position. Having a solid resume is one of the most important pieces, if not the most important pieces when applying for a job. Knowing how to write an aesthetically pleasing and easily readable resume is a priceless skill.

In our resumes and interviews, we had to demonstrate that we had the potential to be more than a boss. We had to show that we had the potential to be a leader, to drive, to innovate, and to ultimately inspire.

Our interviews were also an amazing experience. Many businessmen and women from around our La Paz community came to the school and interviewed several kids. This was enriching, as each individual person contributed their own specialization and opinions into who could be our leader. We also had to extensively prepare for the interviews, with a lesson, mock interviews, and assignments on how to make an impact on the interviewer.

The experience was both memorable and meaningful, which is one of the most ideal situations in teaching. We learned, but we were also entertained, and not one person questioned the relevance of what we were doing (that’s a first!), simply because we all knew how relevant and useful every lesson and every assignment was.

Our first trimester is over at Snack Shack! It has gone by so fast, but we have been able to improve the store in so many ways. We’ve added new products, created new payment systems, and completely changed the way we operate, but we’re not stopping here. The rest of the year will be full of new changes in Snack Shack.

Last week we took a field trip to Miss Amy’s house to experiment with healthy snack options in the store, now we have many new recipes to implement next trimester. We’re also dramatically changing our product variety as we mix up our providers- stay tuned for the new menu.

We would like to thank all of you for your continued support of our business as we learn and grow to become the best store we can be, we couldn’t do it without you.

See you next trimester!

This week at the Snack Shack, we had a busy and exciting one. We brought back the juices, began looking at healthier choices, and are slowly learning about the process of running a business account on Instagram.We also gained back the juices that students and faculty loved, which is an exciting improvement that fixed our previous mistake. We have some ideas on how to make our foods healthier in hopes of encouraging a better lifestyle in our school and throughout our community.

There was a mixup with our juices about two weeks ago that led to us no longer providing juices from our favorite source, Luis Felipe. After our helpful operations member, Raphael, told us what happened with the negotiation of receiving the juices again. Raphael explains that he had to make an appointment with Felipe and persuade him to lower the prices of our juices so we can begin to make more money. Before this offer, we were only making 1.500 per 30 juices sold. Now, we are able to make 3,000 per 30 juices. We hope to slowly be able to raise this number more over time. But for now, we owe a big thank you to Luis Felipe!

  We have been noticing a decline in the healthy options available at our school. It is known that students enjoy sweeter products more than the healthier ones, but we want to start supplying our customers with the tastiest options that are the healthiest for their productive days. We want to start offering better options like kale chips, protein balls, and fruit bowls. This is no easy task, we know that students will prefer to buy the sweeter options but we hope that with these options students will become more motivated to take care of their bodies. We hope that with these products we can transform the store into a better healthier environment while reducing waste.

A company is not a company if there’s not some sort of issue circulating within its headquarters. Companies like: Coca-Cola, Adidas, FedEx started off rough but were later settled in into the environment that companies have to deal with.

As small entrepreneurs with developing ideas, it is our mission to be great communicators and effective listeners in order for everything to run smoothly. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. We started off great, with good ideas, excellent opinions on subjects, concise messages, and everything imaginable. But things started going downhill after our opening. From unwanted drama to miscommunications about money, and going over the budget, Snack Shack has been a very interesting journey for our 10th-grade class.

Though everything is not as gloomy as it may seem. We have recovered and learned from those past experiences. We now know the importance of communication and how it can affect every department individually and even the entire business itself.

Communication among a business is crucial for the well-being of this one. Without any sort of communication, a business can’t flourish into their maximum potential in the industry. Therefore it is our duty, as growing entrepreneurs to start developing these skills so we will be prepared for what the real world has to offer.