If you’re walking down Rosemary St. between 10:00 and noon and see a line of people curving around the corner, chances are it’s for Brandwein’s Bagels. The store opened Aug. 2019 and quickly gained popularity as one of the various hotspots in the area that UNC students flock to for a quick breakfast. Little did you know, there’s a class here at East that contributed to that popularity.
District C, led by Latin teacher Jennifer Hoffman, provides students with the opportunity to deal with real-world issues that companies are forced to address and allows them to engineer creative solutions that are then presented to those businesses.
“District C… has two main objectives. One, to teach students how to work in a diverse team; two, to solve real world problems,” Hoffman said.
The goal is to give companies out-of-the-box strategies that could help improve their businesses.
“It sets you up with businesses that need help, either [because of] COVID or they’re just a struggling business…. They come to us for help and then we give them ideas that they can implement in their own ways,” said former District C student Emma Richie.
In addition, the class provides students a glimpse into the business world and how it operates.
“[District C] shows the struggles of the business field… You have to think outside the box. I think this gives people the opportunity to do that and expand their knowledge,” Richie said.
The students work with a range of companies over the course of the school year.
“Each problem cycle is exciting because we have approximately five to seven every year. We work with anyone from brand marketers… to shoe stores, to food companies to tech companies. We have a wide variety of businesses that we work with,” Hoffman said.
Due to District C’s unique curriculum, the expectations of students differ from other classes.
“I would encourage people [to join] who are interested in doing something different than every other class at the high school. There’s no homework. There’s no tests. This is analytical thinking. It’s people working on real-world things, actual businesses with actual problems who implement a lot of the solutions that students suggest,” Hoffman said.
District C has helped numerous companies: Fleet Feet, Phase Dock, The Purple Bowl (yes, the one on Franklin Street), eCornell Bank of America: Women’s Entrepreneurship, and Whale Shark Software, to name a few.
“Right now we’re working with a business that’s creating courses that are related to STEM and they’re working on those courses, and so we’re helping them design them,” said current District C student and senior Victoria Schmidt.
District C encourages a type of divergent thinking that could help students in the long run, making it a course for students who not only want to go into the business world but also for any students who wish to go into a field of work that involves brainstorming—a skill that is arguably important in every field.
“I would recommend this class to anybody, but especially to people who want to get into the business field and start a business of their own… This gives you the perspective you need,” Richie said. “Overall, it’s a good course and it shouldn’t be overlooked because it’s essentially really good for going into adulthood. It also gives you connections [and the opportunity] to meet a lot of people.”
Photo by Ben Parry/The ECHO
