The Linden High School Entrepreneurial Management Achievement Program (EMAP) recently visited a local manufacturing company to get an up-close look at business in action.
The trip to Cutting Edge Industries on West St. Georges Avenue in Linden gave EMAP students a reality education by allow them to see all facets of their operation, from manufacturing to retails sales in their Stiffel Lighting showroom.
EMAP has been giving LHS students a unique reality-based entrepreneurial arts education for 15 years with the support of the Linden Board of Education and City of Linden.
“All-day seminars such as the one given at Cutting Edge Industries give students hands-on experience of the real world of responsible, successful adulthood to look forward to,” said Sy Mayerson, founder and chairman of EMAP.
Tom Hazel, principal and operating manager of Cutting Edge, gave students an informative tour covering all operations, and Eric Tamburro, marketing director and sales consultant, discussed the various aspects and strengths of Cutting Edge.
Engineer Patrick Chimento and draftsman Rey Vital walked students through their studio, showing them how molds are conceived and created. Production manager Jean Claude Etienne gave a hands-on workshop in which students assembled portions of the company’s lighting products.
EMAP students include Nayla Brown, Taniyah Drayton, Emerald Eke, Claryssa Forde, Heather Forde, Shanell Holmes, Larissa Nascimento-Kapiche, Jan Manto, Samantha Therjuste, Anastasia Young Bey, Endy Cruz, and Ludmila Da Silva. They were accompanied by Mayerson; EMAP President Dianne Blazier-Jiosi; and LHS advisers Lee Gaskins and Debra Heffernan.
Over the entire school year, Students in the EMAP program create a fictional company and take various jobs, from president, to sales, to marketing. Those who complete the program receive a diploma at a graduation ceremony and banquet, where they present their company’s final product.
The students also plan to sell Cutting Edge products to raise money to help the people of Ukraine. They will be visiting another regional business, the Stage House in Somerset, in May to continue their reality-based business education.