Virtual Enterprise, Lynbrook’s student-led-business class, has begun their first year of collaborating with Lynbrook’s athletics department. Some current and potential projects include making and selling media guides, video broadcasting sports, designing team apparel and when corporate sponsorships become accessible, making posters and banners to display around campus.

“I wanted to introduce opportunities in Lynbrook’s athletics department for students who don’t play sports, and we have really smart students at this school who are capable of doing tasks that we would otherwise hire other people to do,” Athletic Director Jennifer Griffin said. “Through this collaboration, they’re getting the experience of running a business, and we’re getting the products.”

After interacting more with Virtual Enterprise students for college signing day resources, she saw potential in a partnership with the class.

For Virtual Enterprise’s annual project, students are assigned to split into small groups in which they propose an idea and launch their own business. While all monetary profits from these businesses will go back to Virtual Enterprise, their goals are to make back the money initially invested in their business and to apply their business and marketing knowledge to real-world situations. To offset the cost of supplies, some projects will rely on product sales while other projects are planning to reach out to corporate sponsors for ad sales. The companies most projects hope to feature are primarily sports-related, but they hope to also reach out to local restaurants. 

“I think selling media guides is a good way for Lynbrook athletes to gain more recognition,” junior Dylan White, a football and baseball player, said. “It’s also good for individual athletes to have tangible records of their experiences.”

So far, the students who are working on media guides have completed taking most of their photos, and are currently developing the brochure’s design with plans to release it for sale by mid-October. Meanwhile, the students developing a sports-broadcasting platform have started preparing for livestreams by connecting the indoor-court cameras to their Youtube channel, Viking Vision. They are now brainstorming concepts, such as donation rewards and sponsorships, to monetize their channel.  

“Communication is a big deal in this project,” said sophomore Arnav Shah, a member of the media guide project. “Keeping in touch with Griffin and all of the coaches makes sure we’re all following the same schedule and sharing ideas.”

Griffin hopes to continue the collaboration with Virtual Enterprise to enhance existing projects and feature local businesses on the media guide in the future.