In 8th grade, Maria Jaramillo came up with the idea of selling cookies. After confronting her shyness and building courage she was finally able to offer the cookies she made with effort and dedication. At the time, she was saving up for a trip to Republica Dominicana and was looking to help her parents with expenses. Later, the extra money allowed her to gain independence and ever since she has continuously sold the same cookies. She is currently saving to study abroad and using the money to finance college.

Selling at school has become a trend. Students continue to save up and grow their independence by earning their own money from selling cookies, brownies, candies, chips, muffins, truffles, and more. As the pandemic limited the physical interaction of students and teachers, this year sales have risen in popularity at TCS forcing directives to implement new policies. These were created due to the high demand of students wanting to sell and the school’s concerns about sales interfering with class time, sustainability policies, and students’ health.

“The biggest issue we had with selling was the amount of students signed up to sell, if it weren’t for the restrictions made, we would have about 200 students selling at the same time,” William Pulgarin, Middle School Principal, said. 

In Middle School, out of 380 students, around half of them wanted to start selling. However, only 25 students went through the selling policies and got approved by the administration. 

“Because of the pandemic and the limitations it brought, students have been more motivated to start selling, so we had to create restrictions. To avoid students selling at the same time, Bandura established a schedule where no more than 15 students can be selling simultaneously in middle school,” Pulgarin, said. 

The new policies ensure students to take selling seriously by doing it safely and in a healthy manner while allowing regular school activity to continue flawlessly. For this reason, the school requires student sales to be done exclusively during breaks and after school while all in-class sales remain prohibited.

“The one priority in the restrictions we have is to make sure that selling does not interrupt class time, most of the people selling have done a good job selling during window and lunch,” Paul Navarra, High School Vice Principal, said.

Besides this, restrictions are meant to keep the school in order and to grant sellers the experience of a real-life entrepreneur. Policies in middle school are stricter compared to high school because middle school students are having their first selling experience. For instance, in middle school the selling policy consists of different steps; the first step is for students to donate 50.000 pesos to the foundation; then, students must fill out a formal application and if approved, they receive a pass with a schedule to follow with the days they are allowed to sell. 

“The restriction of donating relates to life as any time you sell something you have to pay taxes. It was an incentive to help students understand that they can sell, but it will cost something in return, so there is a benefit for everyone. The money donated by students is being used to give a scholarship to children at the school foundation that can’t attend college so we noticed we could help out these people while giving sellers a real-life entrepreneurial experience.” Pulgarin said.

Despite the added benefits of selling, most students have specific targets for their savings. While some are just looking to start earning some money, most students have specific goals for their sales. For instance, many seniors are looking to finance college applications and gain independence from their parents as they become adults.

“I know that senior year is very expensive not only for the expenses of being a senior in school but there are also a lot of parties and activities like Halloween that are very expensive and I feel very guilty that I have to ask my parents for money.  I want to have my financial independence and be able to pay for things on my own.” Maria Hinestroza, Senior, said.

The added benefits of selling go way beyond learning the principles of a business and making some money. Students also develop independence, learn how to organize time, save money and manage it.  However, despite the school’s efforts to promote entrepreneurship, directives have been forced to ban certain students from selling for not following the selling restrictions. This is a controversial topic as students have found contradictions within the sugar and packaging policies and consequently decided to sell illegally.

“It is a very weird regulation because cookies and sugary drinks might have the same levels of sugar and calories and I don’t see the reason why I can sell cookies but somebody else can’t sell a soda,” Jaramillo, said. 

In addition to these rule evaders, students have continuously sold illegally as they claim that they are unaware of the new selling policies. Furthermore, students have found the process to be unnecessary and complicated and have failed to adapt to the new policies

“I believe that most students that are selling illegally are either because they aren’t informed of the policies or because they think the process is tedious. For instance, at first, I started selling illegally because I did not know the process I was supposed to follow, but now that I have permission I noticed that the policy is easy to follow,” Cardenas said. 

Although there are more restrictions concerning selling in middle school, there are more high school students who are selling illegally. As some students see the policies as a fair process, others prefer not to follow them or simply decide to sell without a permit.

“Selling policies in high school aren’t as exact, it is a really easy process to follow which facilitates the idea of selling by informing the administration and at the same time keeping everything under control,” Miguel Cardenas, Senior, said. 

Out of 25 high school students that have permission to sell, only 2 students had their permit revoked temporarily while the directives worry about the rising amount of illegal sellers as students fight the controversial regulations.

“The school is very different from what real life looks like, it is just annoying how before it was that you had to sell homemade stuff, and know, they promote more eco-friendly selling but at the same time they should be encouraging students to earn their own money instead of preventing them,” Hinestroza, said.