Photo by Joselyn King The ribbon was cut this week on the new Business and Entrepreneurship Center at West Virginia Northern Community College this week Pictured from left are WVNCC President Daniel Mosser; Kim McCuskey, WVNCC Foundation Board of Directors trustee; Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder; student Allison Blevens; and Lyndsie Scott-Guzek, director of the Business and Entrepreneurship Center.

WHEELING — Students at West Virginia Northern Community College are now crafting Thundering Chicken merchandise, then marketing it and selling it themselves.

And college officials hope that experience will enhance WVNCC’s business program and help it continue the robust growth it has enjoyed over the last couple of years.

WVNCC this week officially unveiled its Business and Entrepreneurship Center, located on the second floor of the school’s main building. The center was the idea of Assistant Professor Lyndsie Scott-Guzek, director of the new Business and Entrepreneurship Center.

It provides students the chance to use an embroidery machine, heat presses and processes for “direct to film” t-shirts and other items.

Scott-Guzek said she was inspired to begin the center at WVNCC after attending a national business conference and discovering many other schools were taking a hands-on approach to business learning.

She has been working in the space for about a year, while students began creating items in the Business and Entrepreneurship Center at the beginning of the fall semester.

Since then, they have produced the Items already for sale there.

“It feels so good. I’m excited for my students to get this kind of turnout,” Scott-Guzek said. “We have so many people here today, and they (students) are in there telling them what the machinery is and what they do in the course.”

Some present could be seen making purchases at the business center.

“We want them to,” she continued. “The goal of the course is not only for them (students) to have their hands on production, but communication with a customer and fulfilling an order the customer needs.

“Maybe they didn’t know that this was here, and now they do. Hopefully, this brings in more customers for our students.”

Scott-Guzek said a priority in the class is to keep the items at a lower price for purchase. The students have done market research to determine price points, and have set prices so that “any student would be able to afford a shirt in the shop.”

Presently there are five students in the entrepreneurship class for the spring semester, and she expects there to be “many more” in the class next year. It is only offered during the spring semester, and is a requirement of the business administration program at WVNCC.

The business program had only about a dozen students when Scott-Guzek took it over in 2022, explained WVNCC President Daniel Mosser. Today it has about 40.

He called the new Business and Entrepreneurship Center not just “a lab,” but a means to launch “an innovative learning solution for students.”

“Our students won’t just learn about businesses. They will actually operate them,” Mosser said. “They will gain critical skills in finance, marketing and customer service, providing them a competitive edge in their careers.”

Kim McCluskey, WVNCC Foundation Board of Directors trustee, explained funding for the Business and Entrepreneurship Center doesn’t come from the school’s general fund, but rather from money raised by the foundation.

The application initially submitted to them by Scott-Guzek asked for $2,000 — $1,500 for equipment and $500 for supplies such as t-shirts, he said.

“We were more than happy. This is the type of program we like to foster,” McCluskey said. “The students here are going to learn hands-on about running their own business. We enthusiastically support this program.”