On the night of Friday, Feb. 17, Wareham High School senior Marian Karam had her work cut out for her. 

On Friday, the Vikings took on the Bourne Canalmen in a Senior Night game. With dozens of hungry spectators coming to her in search of concessions, Karam had to “take a deep breath.” 

“I don’t stress about it,” she said, “because at the end of the day, it’s over.”

Karam is the Co-Vice President of Student-Based Enterprise, which is a fancy way of saying that she is the manager of the High School’s Clifford Sylvia School Store.

The school store opened in 1991, and since then has been run by students in the High School DECA Club for young entrepreneurs. The store sells food and drink as well as clothing and accessories with Viking pride. The clothing is made by the students themselves, or in collaboration with Spider Apparel in Onset. 

All proceeds from the store go to the DECA Club and its field trips to events across the country. 

Karam is in charge of purchasing supplies, designing merchandise and handling transactions. 

“It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be,” Karam said, “and there’s a lot that goes behind it. It’s not all fun.” 

The store was recently named an Outstanding School-Based Enterprise by the national DECA Club. 

A school-based enterprise is a business run by high schoolers to teach them marketing, finance, hospitality and management in a real-world setting.

“It’s really nice working in [the store],” said freshman Kailee Rose. “Sometimes it can be kind of tiring. There’s some days where nobody comes in, and some days where everyone comes in, but it’s a really great experience.” 

Rose is part of the DECA Club Action Team, which means that she helps the Club’s officers when they need it. She wants to study fashion marketing in college, and is learning firsthand what it takes to go from making clothing to selling it. 

“Usually I try to remain calm and listen,” she said, “so I know what people want.” 

DECA Advisor Lisa Cunha took over the store in 2018. 

“We had no merchandise,” she said, “so we rebranded and created new staple apparel this year.” 

New merchandise available at the school includes bracelets, keychains and water bottles. 

“The new merchandise has been very popular,” Cunha said. “We’re almost sold out.” 

The school store and 460 other school-based enterprises will be honored at DECA’s International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Florida this April.