Students ponder creative career moves in bad economy

By: Rusty Ray | SCNOW
Published: January 12, 2009

Rachel Ramsbottom says the Myrtle Beach area used to have a good used book store, but not any more.

"I think there is a need for it," Ramsbottom said. "I think it's something people would enjoy," she said.

Ramsbottom, a senior at Socastee High School, used her senior career fair project as an opportunity to co-create the fictional "Novel Idea" bookstore.

The plan calls for an old house in downtown Myrtle Beach, near the ocean, to be converted into a book store.

"(The house) has six bedrooms, (and) you can go room-to-room, and look at different books from different genres," she said.

The job fair requires seniors to team up with other students and create businesses from the ground up--including budgets, advertising plans, job applications for potential employees, and location specifics.

Ross McConeghy and his team came up with a party planning service.

"Everybody wants to have a party," said McConeghy.

But would these students be celebrating if they had to hit the ground running for real with these ideas, in this bad economy?

"I'd be really nervous," said McConeghy. "This has been a big experience, (but) being inside school helps a lot, making it not so uptight."

"It would be scary," said Ramsbottom. "It would be a big undertaking to organize something like this. The way we planned it, you could do it pretty easily," she said.

The project is made easier because the students are given an imaginary budget of $500,000 to lauch each business, but even then, some of the students realized they would need big loans to make their businesses happen.

Socastee High School seniors put on the job fairs twice a year, and invite outside judges to come in and critque the presentations.

The next career fair comes up on March 26th.