These students are raising thousands for their school (and themselves) with jawns

A troop of high school students in West Philly are running a tree ornament operation out of an after-school program, and it’s reeling in thousands of dollars.

For the second consecutive year, students at The Workshop School have been designing, crafting and selling artisanal, Philly-centric Christmas tree ornaments. According to NewsWorks, the ornaments generated about $7,000 this year — tripling last year’s sales.

Half the funds will be routed back to the school. The other half will get divvied up and doled out as student management sees fit.

This isn’t your grandmother’s arts and crafts club. This is a real business with real profit potential. So, the students treat it like one. Check out this jawn for yourself below.

The program, Workshop Industries, employs a laissez-faire take on project-based education. A faculty supervisor is tasked with keeping things civil, but the business itself is overseen and operated by the students (who very resourcefully persuaded their colleagues over at the computer club to build them an ecommerce site).

It’s a hands-off pedagogical approach that relies on real-world testing, and educators across the city are giving it a shot. Just ask the aspiring student entrepreneurs developing their businesses at Friends Select School or the 13 teens who recently granted $45,000 to local nonprofits after developing their own vetting process.