Students Andrew Green,17, and Bryson Richard,17, along with teacher Mrs. Janae Dennis, left, show off two of the t-shirts they designed and printed at Opelousas High School on Monday, January 24, 2022 in Opelousas, La.. The entrepreneurship class began a t-shirt printing business last year but it really started taking off so much a nonprofit with the St Landry Economic Development office covered the cost of a new, bigger machine for the students to continue their business.
Student Bryson Richard, 17, along with teacher Mrs. Janae Dennis look over some of the t-shirts her class designed and printed at Opelousas High School on Monday, January 24, 2022 in Opelousas, La.. The entrepreneurship class began a t-shirt printing business last year but it really started taking off so much a nonprofit with the St Landry Economic Development office covered the cost of a new, bigger machine for the students to continue their business.
Student Bryson Richard,17, demonstrate places a transfer on the heat press to make a t-shirts at Opelousas High School on Monday, January 24, 2022 in Opelousas, La.. The entrepreneurship class began a t-shirt printing business last year but it really started taking off so much a nonprofit with the St Landry Economic Development office covered the cost of a new, bigger machine for the students to continue their business.
Students Andrew Green, 17, and Bryson Richard, 17, demonstrate how they fold the finished t-shirts that they printed at Opelousas High School on Monday, January 24, 2022 in Opelousas, La.. The entrepreneurship class began a t-shirt printing business last year but it really started taking off so much a nonprofit with the St Landry Economic Development office covered the cost of a new, bigger machine for the students to continue their business.
Student Andrew Green, 17, demonstrate now he designs t-shirts at Opelousas High School on Monday, January 24, 2022 in Opelousas, La.. The entrepreneurship class began a t-shirt printing business last year but it really started taking off so much a nonprofit with the St Landry Economic Development office covered the cost of a new, bigger machine for the students to continue their business.
Students Andrew Green,17, and Bryson Richard,17, along with teacher Mrs. Janae Dennis, left, show off two of the t-shirts they designed and printed at Opelousas High School on Monday, January 24, 2022 in Opelousas, La.. The entrepreneurship class began a t-shirt printing business last year but it really started taking off so much a nonprofit with the St Landry Economic Development office covered the cost of a new, bigger machine for the students to continue their business.
Student Bryson Richard, 17, along with teacher Mrs. Janae Dennis look over some of the t-shirts her class designed and printed at Opelousas High School on Monday, January 24, 2022 in Opelousas, La.. The entrepreneurship class began a t-shirt printing business last year but it really started taking off so much a nonprofit with the St Landry Economic Development office covered the cost of a new, bigger machine for the students to continue their business.
Student Bryson Richard,17, demonstrate places a transfer on the heat press to make a t-shirts at Opelousas High School on Monday, January 24, 2022 in Opelousas, La.. The entrepreneurship class began a t-shirt printing business last year but it really started taking off so much a nonprofit with the St Landry Economic Development office covered the cost of a new, bigger machine for the students to continue their business.
Students Andrew Green, 17, and Bryson Richard, 17, demonstrate how they fold the finished t-shirts that they printed at Opelousas High School on Monday, January 24, 2022 in Opelousas, La.. The entrepreneurship class began a t-shirt printing business last year but it really started taking off so much a nonprofit with the St Landry Economic Development office covered the cost of a new, bigger machine for the students to continue their business.
Student Andrew Green, 17, demonstrate now he designs t-shirts at Opelousas High School on Monday, January 24, 2022 in Opelousas, La.. The entrepreneurship class began a t-shirt printing business last year but it really started taking off so much a nonprofit with the St Landry Economic Development office covered the cost of a new, bigger machine for the students to continue their business.
It’s tucked away in a room down the hall from the main office at Opelousas High School. That's where you’ll find the small heat press and other equipment that students use in a new T-shirt printing business that was born late last school year.
But this year a funny thing happened during football season. Orders for shirts came in by the bunches. And they kept coming.
They shot up during homecoming week. Then when the football team made the playoffs, an order came for nearly 100 shirts. For the school’s powderpuff game, there was an order for 125 shirts.
“It gets tense at times,” said Janae Dennis, who teaches entrepreneurship at OHS and has taught for nine years. “I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve had to turn down work orders because we had so many at one time. With limited equipment, we’ve had to decline some things. We haven’t made a full year yet of operations, but we’re doing very well.”
So that’s when another funny thing happened. Once members of the Vision St. Landry group — the nonprofit arm of the St. Landry Economic Development office — found out about the students’ situation, they moved into action. The group earlier this month agreed to buy a new and larger, professional-grade heat press that can get twice the amount of shirts printed, bumping up their production capacity from about 50 in one hour to 100.
The group put down the hefty price tag of $1,875 to support a program that school officials say is not only teaching students how to print shirts and run a small business but also part of a bigger effort to help OHS become more of a self-sustainig operation.
Board member Patrick Fontenot, a longtime Opelousas insurance agent, said he found out about the program when he told someone he needed eight shirts for a golf tournament. He’s since directed others to it.
“I was just so impressed that OHS was forward-thinking enough to bring this program in,” he said. “It’s another positive thing that’s happened at OHS. I’m 75 years old, and I’ve been out there a long time. When it came up at (our) meeting of us giving them money, it was a no-brainer for me. If we can educate more of our kids, we’ll have less trouble.”
The program started after Dennis said she stumbled upon a teacher outside Louisiana that started a similar program. From there she began researching items that would be needed, get donated materials — a cricut, a vinyl-cutting machine and a heat press that prints on the shirt — and launched it at end of the previous school year.
The whole operation includes about 45 students, and they rotate duties that range from production to ordering and delivery, Dennis said, with activity happening only during class times. On the wall is a job chart that lists everyone’s duties.
“They learn customer service skills, and they learn selling skills,” Dennis said. “They get assigned different roles they would get in a business. They learn about inventory. They learn about marketing and all those different components that go into running a business.”
It’s been an added benefit to Bryson Richard, a senior at OHS who also has a T-shirt printing business at home that he operates through his Instagram account. It’s no small operation — he’s got 12,000 followers — but he’s still able to pick up ways to improve that business while working with the school’s program, like how to use a ruler during the heat press to make sure the graphic is centered on the garment.
“I would just eyeball it,” said Richard, who wants to major in graphic design in college. “Ms. Dennis gave me a lot of information about it. She taught me more about how to do it. I do about 10 shirts a week, and it takes time.”
The program fits into the idea of principal Ricky Julien’s overall efforts at OHS becoming a self-sustaining operation, which would allow the school to tap into a reserve of funding instead of conducting a fundraiser or going outside the school for help. The money generated from the T-shirt sales go back into the program.
It also provides a hands-on experience for students who may show interest in running a business one day.
“Ms. Dennis understood where I was wanting to go, and she started putting everything in motion,” Julian said. “The students love it. They’re excited to see how it all comes together. Some of them have already expressed an interest in other things. They’re really starting to see: ‘Hey, I can start a business. I can manage a business.’”
The program is still just getting started, Dennis noted, and their goal this spring is to fine-tune their operations. It’s gathered a good bit of interest off campus in the city, making customers out of a local state legislator, Mayor Julius Alsandor’s office and some local businesses.
Eventually it could turn into a good revenue generator, senior Andrew Green noted, even if the shirts are sold for between $10-$15.
But it’s the educational end result that Fontenot said is the main goal.
“One kid was so outstanding,” he said. “His vision was way beyond just shirts. Apart from having that experience, you can see that (program) brought him out. He spoke so proud. Nothing but positive can come out of that. I see that program as something that’s going to stick with those students to where they can say, ‘I can’t get a job, but maybe I can create one.’”
Email Adam Daigle at adaigle@theadvocate.com.
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