Explore business marketing and plan an annual festival.
Overview
- Essential Question: How do businesses best work together for the common good of the town’s economy? How can I best work with businesses to build my own career opportunities?
- Area of study: Business, Marketing
- Type and amount of credit earned: 4 elective credits total (two trimesters, two credits per trimester)
- Community partner: Director of local Chamber of Commerce
Competencies
Winnacunnet uses the same set of competencies for all elective ELOs to help build and assess common and critical soft skills. The student also established goals specific to this ELO:
- I want to gain hands-on experience in the business and marketing career field.
- I want to learn more about the different types of marketing and marketing strategies.
When ELOs are created for elective credit within a content area, Winnacunnet uses competencies in that specific content area to assess the student in addition to the ELO-specific competencies below:
- Reflection, Research, Product, and Presentation
- Communication
- Self-direction
- Creativity
- Collaboration
See the detailed ELO description for the full text of these competencies.
Student activities
- Explore multiple areas of marketing and event planning. This was a “learn and do” internship in:
- Marketing research on how marketing is defined
- Social media and various communication tools
- Website review and enhancements
- Steps to follow for event planning
- Operations – hands on administrative tasks directly connected to these two areas
- Sponsorship research and selection using the philosophy of “how do we get a yes”
- Finance – revenue and expense budgeting and billing
- Creative writing utilizing generative AI
- Understanding the importance of community involvement in planning programs
- Final event planning assignment using aspects above:
- Organize and execute various aspects of an annual festival, including vendor coordination, activity planning and volunteer management.
- Collaborate with local businesses and community organizations to secure sponsorships and donations for the annual festival.
- Manage event budget and expenses for the annual festival, ensuring cost-effectiveness and financial accountability.
Assessment
The student’s mid-point product was a presentation regarding the basics of event planning and how she learned those basics through hands-on experience at the internship.
The student’s final product will be a guide for successfully running the annual festival which she is in charge of planning and executing. This binder of information will demonstrate her learning as it will describe her process for planning the event, and will exhibit her reflections on what went well and what should be improved for next year. This product was decided upon in conjunction with the Community Partner.
The student’s research will include an annotated bibliography of main sources used to gain new knowledge, including internet sources and informational interviews with professionals.
The final presentation will be to Chamber of Commerce staff, teachers, friends, and the college counselor.
Student demonstrated mastery of competency through these activities and was graded on the ELO Summative Rubric (see sidebar). Formatively, students was graded on ability to self-reflect and set goals through weekly check-ins with ELO Coordinator.
More information
This ELO sometimes requires that the student travel to events that are outside of the typical timing of the ELO, which is during one block of the school day.
I would recommend that students be required to take any business/marketing courses previously offered at the school, so that they have some baseline knowledge, and also feel some sense of conviction that they are interested in this field.
This internship is fairly intensive and is best suited to a student who knows they want to enter this field or directly adjacent business fields. The student who initially completed this ELO was highly motivated and had a strong background in marketing.
This ELO was submitted by Matt Long, ELO Coordinator, and Donna Couture, Director of Extended Learning, Winnacunnet High School. Email ELO Coordinator for more information
May 2025
