The Raider Coffee House got to “teach the teachers” when they presented on their operation at the 2025 South Dakota Teachers Conference on March 19th. There, the group of student employees gave information on how the school-work site functions.
Peggy Bias, director of the Coffee House, stated, “They talked about the day-to-day operation of the coffee house, and then I did the part about this is how you get a coffee house up and running.”
15 students took part in the presentation, and all are Coffee House employees. To prepare, each helped build a PowerPoint, take pictures, and assign parts. They also practiced for days, as they completed the presentation in front of different classes from around the building to receive feedback. “Then at that point we know that we might have to work on a few things. We have to change a few things. So that’s what we did,” Junior, Devon Nielsen, said.
To Mrs. Bias’s knowledge, this was the first time a group of students had given a presentation at the State Conference. Nielsen noted, “We were definitely nervous when the idea came up, but I think towards the end we all kind of gave out best effort and I think we all were proud of ourselves.”
The Coffee House was created in 2013 with the support of the school and several other organizations. The purpose of starting this organization was to build critical life skills. Some of those include: customer service, repair tasks, money-handling, budgeting, accident prevention, and more.
Since then, there have been many areas of growth within their operation. “We started just offering coffee and coffee drinks… Since then, we’ve expanded to include Italian sodas and cold brew. As we’ve built up revenue, we’ve bought better equipment, especially as ours wears out,” Bias stated.
The Raider Coffee House employees will be getting recognized by the school board on May 6th for their accomplishments. Bias also acknowledged the great support of the staff and students throughout this time.