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Westminster Christian School senior Dawson Medina goes to the Westminster Elementary School to teach students about entrepreneurship. He started the program last spring. He had benefitted from an entrepreneurship class he took in fifth grade at Westminster and wanted to give others the opportunity he had.
He started thinking about the class in his sophomore year and wanted to do something to bring back the class that was no longer available.
“I designed the curriculum on how to start a business,” he says. “They started businesses. And then in May they had two showcase events.”
One of those events was at Westminster and the other was a Young Entrepreneurs Showcase offsite.
His business partner, Justin Sanchez, is also a co-instructor for the program. Sanchez will take over the program when Medina leaves for college.
He’s now started the program at Cutler Bay Middle School, a Title One school. He is working with students with intellectual disabilities, going Tuesday and Thursday for an hour at a time.
“Kids with their circumstances are often overlooked, and I wanted to provide them with the opportunity to hopefully develop a passion for entrepreneurship.” he says. “It started with eight students, and now has nine. These kids are working to start a baked good business.
They are going to sell around the school once we get back from Thanksgiving break for the holiday season.”
One lesson was about community service and giving back to the community.
“They designed the business plan, created a recipe and product, and identified how they would give back,” he says. “Most likely we will try to donate a portion to the community.”
The Westminster program will resume after New Year’s. They met Mondays and Fridays after school.
“The kids at Westminster donated a lot of money,” he says. “In total, we were able to donate $800 to KIX, an organization in Miami.”
His first business was called Dawson’s Donuts. It was short-lived but from eighth grade onward, he started and failed at businesses until the one that he has now.
That business is Magic City Clothing LLC, a custom clothing distribution company.
“Anyone who has a large order for an event, they will send us the design and we’ll make it for them,” he says “It’s a normal deep press. We get the transfers and put them on the shirts.”
The largest order they completed was around 100 shirts, but they are now working on an order of upward of 300.
At Westminster, Medina is on the student leadership board. He’s the chair of the clubs and community service committee.
He’s also a two-sport athlete. He’s played varsity lacrosse and varsity golf all four years of high school and he’s been the captain and #1 or #2 seed on the golf team since sophomore year.
“This was the best year we’ve had in years,” he says. “We made it to the regionals this year.”
Playing the trumpet is another talent. He’s the trumpet section leader in the school band and he’s also a member of the conductor’s professional band, the Miami Sousa Band. Last year band members went to Hawaii for performances. This school year they are going to the Mid-West. With the professional band, he was able to play at Carnegie Hall.
Medina is an Emerald Scholar, vice president of the National Honor Society and president of Mu Alpha Theta.
He also leads a financial literacy and investment club at Westminster and has since sophomore year.
He plans to major in Economics or Finance in college.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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