Proud to Be From Pittsburgh

South Hills business run entirely by high school students

BALDWIN, Pa. — A new business in the South Hills is racing to get orders fulfilled by Christmas. It’s run entirely by students.

It’s called the Innovation Shop at Baldwin High School.

“Our gifted students are able to work with special needs students and they’re able to come up with ideas and they bring these ideas to life,” said Jared Hoffman, gifted coordinator at Baldwin High School.

“It’s quite literally a business,” said 12th grade student Payton Fleszar. “We have our own website, make our own products.”

She and a dozen classmates are responsible for creating, producing, selling online and in person, and shipping everything out.

“I think it’s good because it prepares you for the real world, like an actual job,” said Payton.

The program started this school year and they’ve created puzzles, cell phone stands, games, earrings and ornaments for the holidays.

“We really see kids growing at a tremendous rate,” said Hoffman. “We see students learning so many valuable skills that like I said would have otherwise been untouched.”

And it’s more than that for Din Goawala, a 9th grade special education student at Baldwin High School.

“I like helping and making friends,” Din said.

“With different classes, it tends, in my opinion, to be the same group of kids in packs, so its nice to be able to integrate all different kinds of people,” said Payton.

If you’d like to check out their work, CLICK HERE.