A hotel, an arts organization and a law enforcement agency – as disparate as they may seem – had the same concern about their operations: a lack of visibility. And for their common problem, they all sought ideas from an uncommon source: LCPS high school students involved in Teamship, a summer learning experience that puts creative young minds in the middle of business meetings.
For two weeks in July, 20 students from four LCPS high schools worked in teams to find ways to boost business at Kinston’s Hampton Inn, to increase participation in events and activities organized by the Community Council for the Arts and to burnish the brand of the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office as a public-service agency, particularly as an aid to recruiting.
They interviewed representatives of the three operations, visited their workplaces, brainstormed possible solutions within teammates and their teams’ coaches and developed examples – from brochures to videos to social media postings – of the ideas they recommended.
“The students become subject matter experts in the field,” said Dr. Travis Towne, who teaches economics at Lenoir County Early College High School and is the Teamship program lead in Lenoir County. “These students research that problem, go beyond the actual problem itself and look at other industries that may have had these problems and ask how they solved the problems themselves. They present to the business not only a solution that is based on their key insights and their understanding of the problem, but they also provide them a prototype. They provide them with something of value that can immediately be put into use.”
That’s certainly happened before, over the five summers LCPS students have enlisted in Teamship, a College Board program, or its predecessor, District C. The internship program at Kinston-Lenoir County Public Librarygrew out of student recommendations. So did an internship program with the Down East Wood Ducks, the local minor league baseball team at the time. So did the Kinston Police Department’s beefed-up social media presence.
At the “pitch event” that capped off this summer’s Teamship session on July 23, Hampton Inn general manager Maurice Mills came away with a prototype brochure, a promotional video and a social media strategy aimed at boosting “awareness of the hotel among potential guests,” as the students summarized a key goal of their work.
Mills also came away impressed. “It went wonderful,” he said of the presentations from the two teams working the Hampton Inn problem. “We’re going to take their ideas back and speak with our management team and try to implement some of the things they suggested as far as the social media output, the billboards, closer relationship with the school system. Getting the hotel name out there a little bit more will be beneficial to the property.”
Since its mission is, as executive director Jeffrey Williford put it, “Arts for All” and since “all” doesn’t include as many young people as the Community Council for the Arts would like, Williford took to heart suggestions from the two teams comprised of a key piece of that demographic. One possibility for connecting with teens, the students told him, is a special teen membership program that would make card holders eligible for raffle prizes when they attended an arts council event.
Shayla Winstead, a rising sophomore at Early College, developed a brochure aimed at people ages 21-25 that advertised two of her ideas for connecting this “busier” age group to the arts council – an open mic night and themed workshops. “In the end, it’s really a social event. I think it would be fun,” Shayla said.
After the pitch event, Williford seemed ready to act. “I am really impressed with these two groups,” he said. “They’ve done a great job. We’re going to take some of these ideas and implement them. I can’t wait for them to see how their ideas take shape.”
From detailed suggestions for social media posts to an enhanced website to videos that acquaint aspiring deputies with the recruitment and training process, the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office gained “insight” into dealing with one of law enforcement’s most vexing problems, according to Larry Greene, the agency’s operations major.
“Both groups offered a lot of insight about recruiting the younger generation. Law enforcement is struggling with that sort of thing. The two teams put out some very good ideas for modernizing our methods. There is a lot we could do based on their ideas,” said Greene, who plans to take the Teamship recommendations to Sheriff Jackie Rogers for consideration.
The Teamship experience teaches students something about business and the real-world issues businesses face; but it also offers broader lessons like problem-solving, working in teams, the elements of critical thinking and how to communicate, both as a speaker and a listener.
Putting all those skills together allows the students to “dig deeper,” according to Stephanie Sumner. The media coordinator at South Lenoir High School, Sumner is a newly trained Teamship coach who worked this summer with Towne and fellow coaches Sara Levin, the media coordinator at Kinston High, and Michelle Taylor, an English teacher at North Lenoir High.
“The teams have tools that they use and a key tool is questioning, trying to dig deeper and find out what the root cause of the problem is, so they built their questions around that,” she said.
The results of the process reveal more than business solutions, according to LCPS Superintendent Brent Williams, who attended the pitch event with parents of the students and other guests.
“The results are very impressive,” Williams said. “You hear the ideas these students have. You see their creative skills, you see their thinking, you see their conviction and their passion for really trying to help. That is really what this is all about.”
Pictured:
Maurice Mills, general manager of the Hampton Inn in Kinston, discusses ideas for increasing awareness of the hotel’s offerings with a Teamship team of LCPS students who had created examples of a variety of approaches, from brochures to website enhancements to a promotional video. In the background are students’ parents and other guests on hand for the July 23 “pitch event.”