Spirit Box is an educational program, founded and run by Springfield Public Schools alumni. The company uses smart-vending machines to give students hands-on experience with running a business – from management to sales, to data tracking and advertising. Through the use of vending machines, students sell and manage things like snacks, textbooks and school merchandise.
Co-founder of Spirit Box, Philip Baird, said hands-on experience is a crucial learning tool for students.
“One of the sayings that resonated with me is that you can’t teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar,” Baird said. “You can show them diagrams and slideshows and how pedals work and the science behind it, but until you start getting on the bike and falling over and you know, getting roughed up and trying again, you know.”
He explained that running a vending machine requires the same amount of focus and function as running any business. The Spirit Box is easy to implement, Baird said, but gives students in-depth experience with every aspect of running a business.
“You’ve got to do product research to see what your market desires, you’ve got to do advertising and marketing so people all throughout the school understand what’s available and where the Spirit Box is, obviously your financials, inventory, management,” he said.
Baird said there are other benefits, too. Teachers can use Spirit Box as a tool to turn what they teach in textbooks and lectures into real-world practice. The vending machines become real, for-profit businesses the students run, which Baird said is the biggest side benefit. He explained that the profit earned with the vending machines has been a great way to earn money within the school, for the school.
“It’s been very lucrative, financially, for a lot of schools that are able to use profits from the Spirit Box business and put it into sending students to leadership conferences, competitive events that are maybe sometimes across the country and expensive to attend,” said Baird.
The Spirit Box program started as a pilot project when Baird worked at a yearbook company in Kansas City. He said they started partnering with some schools in Kansas City after buying a couple of used vending machines, and the idea was met with excitement. After buying the pilot project from that yearbook company, Baird and his family moved back to Springfield, where Spirit Box is now based. Baird, a Glendale alum, built a team of staff – coincidentally, all Glendale graduates.
“I promise it’s not a requirement to work at Spirit Box that you have to be a Glendale graduate,” he joked.
But, Baird said, while the program and his team are rooted in Springfield, Spirit Box has expanded nationwide.
Spirit Box recently celebrated the 10-year anniversary of a partnership with DECA Inc., a national student business organization. DECA prepares high school and college level students for college and careers in business, finance, hospitality and management. It uses hands-on educational projects and programs to prepare students with real world experience.
Baird explained that he partnered with DECA to help develop Spirit Box and get it into schools. He said currently there aren’t any Spirit Box schools in Springfield, but they are located in Camdenton, Iberia, Osage Beach, Saint Louis and Kansas City. But, Baird said, because of their partnership with DECA, Spirit Box has also expanded nationwide. The company has grown 25% in the last three months, with over 100 Spirit Box schools from Hawaii to New York.
DECA has chapters in schools across the country, Baird said. While Spirit Box doesn’t require schools to have a DECA chapter to partner with them, he said the outreach from the partnership has generated a lot of interest. They now have different styles of vending machines that schools can choose from, with the option to sell snacks, drinks, school spirit wear, textbooks and other school supplies.
“Each school really decides on their own product mix,” he said. “I mean I don’t know if there’s any two Spirit Boxes out there that are run the same way or have the same offerings.”
He added that the program has been an avenue for an even bigger endeavor, where students can run their school’s vending system completely.
“We worked with a student who was running his Spirit Box, and he said, ‘why don’t we run all of the vending machines in the school?' ” said Baird.
The student said this could be a way to keep getting that experience running a business, while also keeping those funds within the school rather than going to a third-party. Baird said he thought it was a great idea, and they tried it first with Camdenton High School. He said they now have students from many schools that have taken over their vending systems completely as a way to keep funds within the school and continue getting hands-on business experience.
