The Grundy Area Vocational Center students in the entrepreneurship program get to experience firsthand what it’s like to run their own small business.

Instructor Joe Terrel and the GAVC provide the equipment, and the kids create the designs, learn how to use the equipment, learn how to use the computer programs to create the designs, and then they create the invoices and produce the shirts.

Anyone who has attended the Megan Bugg Memorial 5K or attended a Morris Community High School sports game in the last few years has already seen the fruits of the students’ labor.

Terrel said as of now, the students have handled over 40 orders between schools, local businesses, and events.

They also use the class as an opportunity to learn how to use the types of products they’d need in an office setting.

Terrel’s class is a place they can go to get certified in Microsoft Excel and Word and Adobe products. Terrel said Christina Van Yperen at the Grundy County Chamber of Commerce was able to help get the cost of these certifications covered for the students.

The students also go on field trips to local businesses to see how people who have made a career of what they’re learning handle it.

Patrick Keegan, the owner of Field Day at 224 Liberty St. in Morris, is the one who came up with the idea for a student to sell a t-shirt in his shop.

Working with Brodie Peterson, the student who designed the winning t-shirt, and Eric Enervold, of Simian Brothers at 534 Bedford Road in Morris, Keegan’s shop became home to Peterson’s winning design.

“I was in that entrepreneurship and computer applications class that the children came to see us from,” Keegan said. “It’s really a full-circle thing for me. It was one of the founding elements of my career in design.”

Keegan said his first exposure to the computer programs he’d use for his career came at the Grundy Area Vocational Center. After high school, he went to the Art Institute of Chicago and then moved to New York City.

In New York, he worked for brands like Ralph Lauren before moving back to Morris with his wife to open Field Day in 2021.

Field Day now carries a t-shirt designed by Peterson that follows the design style Field Day goes for.

“We put the kids to the test,” Keegan said. “We let them put together a t-shirt they thought should be in the Field Day line.”

This means following the elements Field Day goes for. Students visited Simian Brothers Creative in Morris and learned about the screen printing process.

“It’s something I never had exposure to at that age,” Keegan said. “Hopefully, we get the opportunity for these kids to realize there are a lot of careers out there in the creative world, from a product and design point of view. It’s not just an art degree.”