New for the 2019-2020 school year is a new class called Eagle Enterprises. However, this isn’t your typical high school class. This course is a student-led business for the Ag Department. The course has multiple departments” including a carpentry department, welding department, woodshop department, along with an office setting containing financial officers and marketing/social media managers. 

Inside those departments, there are many different positions for students to have. These consist of a Lead Weld Fabricator, Weld Fabricators, CAD/CAM Designers, a Lead Carpenter, Carpenters, a lead Woodshop Worker, Woodshop Workers, Financial Officers, and Multimedia/Social Media Managers.

The business has already been hard at work this year. One of the welding projects has been for River View Sanitation (RVS), where the welding team had to replace the bottom of their dumpsters that were rusting out. Just off of this project alone, they intend to make $750.

We asked Mr. Briggs, one of the leaders of Eagle Enterprises, what the process was of choosing students. “Students are chosen from interviewing for the positions we need,” he said. Then we asked what has been the most challenging part, “Finding barriers the first year and overcoming them,” he said. The last thing we asked is what is the thing he is most looking forward to. He said, “Seeing how much the students can learn and work together and set precedents to what the business will look like in the future.”

New this year along with the course is lots of new equipment. Both the woodshop and metals shop was equipped with state-of-the-art technology. For the metals shop, the school bought a new mill, lathe, belt sander, rotor, a Lincoln Power MIG welder, Miller Dynasty TIG welder, and a beveler. For the woods shop, the school bought a CNC-programed router, a new miter saw and miter saw stand, and many new handheld power tools.

Throughout the rest of the year, Eagle Enterprises has many projects on their “to-do” list that they hope to complete. These include shingling, constructing window shutters and an overhang to update an office building, build a deck for a New Ulm resident, continue to replace the bottom of RVS dumpsters, and many more.