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Many high school students have after-school or weekend jobs, butstudents at Fosston High School in Northwest Minnesota can workduring school hours--and get educational credit for it. Fosston ishome to Tunes N Technology, the only student-run RadioShackfranchise in the world.
The idea arose when the school district's EducationalVisions Committee recommended that students be provided with bothentrepreneurial and employee work opportunities. A survey ofstudents indicated that a RadioShack franchise would be verypopular, but convincing Ft. Worth, Texas-based parent company TandyCorp. that it would work was another story. "Their initialreaction was `You want to do what? Where?' But after they foundout how thoroughly the kids had researched and planned this, theysent some people to talk to us," says Sandy Steile, theteacher who led the effort.
After obtaining funding, the store opened for business inOctober 1995. Although the student workers make minimum wage, amajor perk of their employment is a wealth of knowledge."I've learned a lot from working there," says PatrickSchmidt, a Fosston freshman. "Managing money, doing securityand customer service [is] good experience."
