Donut sales at Westminster have become a perennial event, occurring once in the fall and once in the spring. The product of the Intro to Business classes, donut sales are provided as a tangible way for students to run a small business for a morning.

Despite the physical sale of donuts to the Westminster Community, Upper School Business Teacher Jonathan Horn is focused on a deeper meaning, that students not just focus on selling donuts but how to positively impact someone’s life.

“All groups have donuts. So students have to do something in the way of marketing that gets someone’s attention in a unique way, a unique place, or connected to a unique event” Horn said.

Horn makes the case that when all groups start with a commodity such as donuts, the focus has to shift away from the product itself and on to the creativity it takes to connect a person to a product. It forces students to focus on marketing, and not rely so heavily on a product.”

According to Horn, the “why” of donut sales is “Getting students to learn how, amongst the sea of other options, to effectively connect and communicate with customers in a way that casues them to want to come to you.”    

Upper School Business teacher Sheriden Newlin explains what the actual donut sales consist of.

“We do it because it’s a cheap product that is easy and relatable. It is easy for kids to build off of and teaches kids about sales and marketing…It allows students to try something and have a safe place to fail,” said Newlin.

In each business class, students are broken up into small groups and tasked with creating their own donut stand. In order to get the full experience of running a business, each group must design a unique theme for their stand in order to set them apart from their competitors.

Along with a theme, each business must create a value proposition that allows their donut stand to be a more attractive offer than their competitors.

Beyond just selling donuts, Horn is hopeful that this particular project will cause students to think deeper about their chance to impact the world.

“In my opinion the worst thing we could do is, a kid leaves Westminster and they’ve never considered in their life what it looks like to create something of unique value to people. What does it look like to actually get people to be a part of that. And doing that from a method which should look different from the common marketplace as a Christian in whatever profession they go into.”