The Woodlands Christian Academy prepares tomorrow’s entrepreneurs

THE WOODLANDS, TX — The high school students in the Entrepreneurship class at The Woodlands Christian Academy are making a huge impact on campus. The latest initiatives were in sight when last fall the Entrepreneurship class led by Coach Tom Earle offered their ideas for improvements through their own version of “Shark Tank.”

“We began with brainstorming ideas for updates for TWCA and initially came up with 94 ideas,” Coach Earle said. “Those were then refined as the class did draft presentations, shot down or combined some ideas. We ended up with 11 presentations to administration.”

The students invested their time and energy with initial research for their projects. Their persuasive presentations included quantitative research for financing, budgets, operations, staffing, marketing, and qualitative research from interviews with students, staff and faculty. From lunch line ideas to pickle ball courts, these young entrepreneurs were prepared with improvement ideas for campus, clubs and classes.

One example of their presentations coming to life was from a group of seven young men who met with Chef Sean Smith at TWCA, interviewed the lunch service staff, and designed a new flow diagram to improve lunch traffic and lines. And, their hard work has paid off as many of their ideas came to fruition in the TWCA Warrior Café when school resumed on January 8, 2025.

The ”Lunch Line” team included students Landon Head, Cameron Cox, Bryson Milton, Billy Murphy, Baron Meacham, Maddox Roberts and Josh Endler. The plans implemented include a new configuration for the Bowl it! Wrap it! Smash! (BWS) station. The team suggested that there should be two separate lines instead of one as it is one of the most popular stations in the Café. To implement this change, Chef Sean purchased two new steam tables so students could have two lines to enhance efficiency for this popular station. In the first two weeks, this new configuration is allowing for ten times the serving capability over last year.

In addition to the new steam tables, two new tables with casters for the drink machines and ice dispensers were installed on the outside of the busy service lines. This is helping the lines move much faster in the main service area. Other improvements from this initiative include new cabinets with sliding locking doors and a new one-sided salad bar with food shields near the hot food areas.

The main goal of this student-led venture is to make the lines perform smoother and faster so the students have more time for fellowship and relaxation.

“We are grateful to the students and Coach Earle for removing the veil between students and the Warrior Café, and we are excited to hear more of what they have to say in the future,” Chef Sean said.

The Lunch Line initiative is just one of many proposals that were approved and are now being planned/implemented including:

• Adding an ice cream freezer to the Joseph's Corner in the high school • Starting Home Economics club (name to be determined)
• Pending improvements baseball/softball press box areas
• Adjusting the four-minute passing time between classes to six minutes

The Woodlands Christian Academy congratulations to these Entrepreneurial Warriors for not only being dreamers but doers!

The Woodlands Christian Academy boasts a rich array of academic offerings designed to address the diverse interests and goals of its students. Featuring over 20 Advanced Placement (AP) courses, an assortment of honors and college preparatory level classes, and options spanning five foreign languages as well as over 40 elective course offerings, TWCA provides a comprehensive and challenging curriculum. In addition to traditional coursework, Woodlands Christian offers a diverse range of elective courses encompassing many fields including the Entrepreneurship class.