Winners Circle: Communication, teamwork emphasized at orientation event

Around 1:30 Tuesday afternoon, a group of students were discussing the elements of an eye-catching logo inside Red Hook High School’s Room 181.
At the same time in neighboring Room 183, another group researched effective mission statements.
And, in Room 185, a third set of students meticulously sifted through dozens of boxes of car parts, cataloging each.
While the classes are each unique, with a different teacher and different subject matter, each group was working toward a common goal. And that’s how the Winners Circle Project will operate at Red Hook.
Winners Circle is a career exposure and mentorship program in which three classes form an auto racing organization, focusing not only on the creation of the race car but also the marketing and business aspects of running the team, and compete against other high schools. The students receive guidance on effectively operating in a variety of career fields through dedicated mentorship and experiential field trips.
The innovative program held an orientation event Tuesday with Winners Circle’s leadership team, centered on encouraging the nearly 40 students taking part this inaugural year to act as a unified unit through teambuilding exercises. Then, the three classes split apart to begin their individual tasks in each of the Technology department’s spaces.
The three classes include Visual Communications taught by Joseph Monson, Marketing with Patty Buononato, and Stephen Hutman’s Build Course. Though not required, Red Hook was intentional in holding the class periods concurrently, and in neighboring spaces. As was encouraged by Winners Circle’s leadership Tuesday, no class can succeed in a silo, just as a business would flounder without departments working together.
“Why is it so important that the marketing team knows the build team?” Program Enrichment Coordinator Matteo Lundgren asked the full group. “So that they care about them. … None of this works, as a whole – Winners Circle – the circle doesn’t work unless you all talk to each other.”
Though the Factory Five race car being designed and assembled by the build team is the most eye-catching element of the project, the Winners Circle leadership team emphasized the car is still worth than less than half of a team’s final score at the end of the year, and can be bolstered by such elements as the sponsorships that can be acquired through the visual and marketing teams, in addition to the categories on which those areas of study will be judged.
The students – and teachers – took part in a variety of exercises Tuesday that encouraged them to intermingle and learn more about each other, cheer each other on, and work together and troubleshoot to solve group puzzles.
Afterward, they broke into their classes to work on their individual areas of focus. Matteo Banfo, Winners Circle’s director of visual communications, led the Visual Communications class. He discussed with them the areas on which they will be judged and the importance of their artistic and social media contributions.
“What we do is create awareness, presence and engagement,” he explained. “If everything that happens in the build room and the school stay inside these walls, it’s a failure for us. We’re communicating.”
Members of Winners Circle’s leadership team will visit Red Hook each month to coach the students and teachers, as well as administer the program’s career guidance course.
Soon, the students will launch the identity of their racing team with a logo, mission statement and social media handles for the community to follow along with their progress throughout the year. Be on the lookout for those updates and check out a video look at Tuesday in the program here.