Valentine's Day

Students Learn Floral Skills, Dream of Big Business Success

What to Know

  • Valentine's Day is a busy time for these florist students at Skyline High School
  • Many students cherish the skills they can put to good use as a possible side job in the future or as a main business
  • The students sell their designs on campus, as well as in the community and all the money they make goes back to the school.

In the southwest corner of Skyline High School sits a room you likely wouldn’t immediately recognize as a classroom.

Floral arrangements are everywhere, slowly coming to life, in the days leading up to Valentine's Day.

The Valentine’s season is not just a test, but more like a final exam, in this advanced floral class where students learn the basics of how to design flowers and work as a florist.

"My first dozen was horrible," said student Nattali Orduno, but she certainly has improved over the years and is now the expert on how to arrange a dozen roses.

"It’s a hobby but I want to study business in the future," she said. "It’s a good business opportunity to open a florist shop because they earn a lot of money."

Many of the students are setting plans on how they can use the skills to further their goals.

"I want to be an OB-GYN and I’ll be going through years of college and medical school and I’ll use my floral skills to help me pay for that kind of stuff," said student Joanna Rivera.

They’re thankful their teacher helped them see the potential of the program.

Shawn Coyle teaches a class on outdoors and wildlife here, but when the school’s floral teacher retired, he took up the floral game and loves how his students are creating success.

"We’ve got [graduated] students out there with florist shops and we have students doing stuff on Facebook," Coyle said. "They’re doing 4 or $5,000 during Valentine’s day season."

Rivera says she's already received the best gift from this class.

"I’ve learned to talk to people. Back then, I couldn’t even make eye contact with somebody, I’ve learned how to work with customers and all of those things are very useful in the future," she said.

The students sell their designs on campus, as well as in the community and all the money they make goes back to the school.

You can order arrangements from them by contacting Shawn Coyle at scoyle@dallasisd.org.

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