By Sarah Nagem
snagem@salisburypost.com
Chase Thompson, a junior at East Rowan High School, says he was surprised how little he knew about hosting a business luncheon.
“I didn’t know how to set the forks,” Thompson, a student in the Computer Applications II class, said.
Thompson and about 70 other students in three sections of the class got some real-world experience Friday when they made sales presentations to attorneys from a local law firm and hosted a luncheon.
As part of the business class, teacher Cindy Adkins taught her students how to properly set a table.
They also brushed up on business etiquette: When shaking hands, Thompson says, make sure your grip is not too firm, but not too weak, either. Make eye contact. And open doors for women and your bosses.
For Thompson, the skills will likely be useful. He’s thinking about studying business in college.
Someday, he might be in a real business lunch, pitching some product.
About 60 percent of the students in the class are interested in going into the business world, Adkins said.
“A lot of them are going to be involved in business luncheons and dinners,” she said.
Adkins said she got the idea to help her students host such an event when she and her husband had dinner at the Wrenn House last year.
They noticed that Food Lion was hosting an etiquette training session for their employees in the restaurant’s dining room.
“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t that be cool to do with kids,’ ” Adkins said.
It would have been too expensive for the classes to buy food for three separate luncheons, she said. So she approached her husband, Mike, who is an attorney at the Salisbury law firm Kluttz, Reamer, Hayes, Randolph, Adkins & Carter.
The firm agreed to sponsor the event, Adkins said. The money allowed the class to buy food, which was prepared by students in the school’s Foods I course.
On the menu for the first luncheon was eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes and more.
Attorneys from the law firm took part in each luncheon Friday and judged the computer class students on their sales presentations.
Sarah Newman, a junior, and her “business partners” tried to convince the attorneys a Tablet PC would make their lives easier.
The gadget allows users the option of writing on the screen with a stylus or typing on the keyboard.
It can even recognize a user’s handwriting, they said.
Their pitch was enough to intrigue attorney Jeremy Carter.
“I like that Tablet PC,” he said. “I thought that was neat.”
But even if Carter and his colleagues don’t run out and buy the product for their firm, the students learned a valuable lesson.
“I thought they did a great job of learning how to interact with business folks,” Carter said.