Florida Southern College student-run coffee cart
Morning Grind is like an on-campus internship for FSC students.
Lakeland, Florida – A team of students from Florida Southern College in Lakeland are learning about entrepreneurship while serving high-quality coffee.
Locals make drinking coffee at Morning Grind a part of their daily routine.
Justin Heacock, director of FSC’s Center for Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, said Morning Grind is run entirely by students as an independent business.
“This has been absolutely phenomenal and transformative in their education,” Heacock said. “This is a sandbox environment where they can express themselves. And the best part about it is that they don’t really take any capital risk.”
According to FSC, Morning Grind is like an on-campus internship, with each student taking on the role of a manager. Students will receive a paycheck while working at the carts located in the Becker Business Building.
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“We can put them in a position where they can say, ‘I really want to introduce a new drink,’ and they can go through the whole process from start to finish on what that entails and build on that to be successful.” ‘It’s their idea,’ Heacock explained.
Lauren Schreader is an FSC student and works in Morning Grind’s external relations department. She is majoring in communication, with a particular emphasis on interpersonal and organizational theory.
“Being part of this experience and opportunity allowed me to evolve and grow in entrepreneurship and learn how to start a business,” Schrieder said.
She says the coffee is sourced locally from Concord Coffee in Lakeland. This is a popular shop where students can make and sell their own blended coffee.
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Students also learn how to attract customers from nearby locations, such as Lake Hollingsworth, to increase sales.
Danielle Jones works in the Marketing Department and is double majoring in Business Administration and Marketing with a minor in Business Analytics. He enjoys helping implement marketing strategies and seeing the results.
“We’ve put up some lake signs and what we’ve seen as a result of that is almost immediately a drive up and people coming up and hanging out and talking, which is very, very fun,” Jones said. explained.
College Xpress ranks FSC as second best college Or, thanks to the Seed-to-Scale incubation program, there’s even a university for coffee lovers.
Morning Grind’s last day of business for the spring semester is April 26th and will resume in the fall on August 26th. Click here for more information.
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