RHS students learning design, business skills in floral program

By Dylan Reubenking/[email protected]

One of Rainier’s flourishing businesses is a student-run floral shop operating out of Rainier High School’s floral design program.

The beginning and advanced floral framework classes at RHS teach students how to design and create floral arrangements such as corsages, boutonnieres, wearable art, triangle arrangements, balloon arches and columns, and more. Not only do students get to express their artistic abilities, or even gain artistic abilities, they can also add customer service skills when working with customers who order arrangements for events.

Angie Karnes, RHS floral instructor, started the program when she came to Rainier in the fall of 1995, and the business side of the program arrived in the early 2000s. Now, she teaches 50 students across the two classes. The business helps pay for the materials and resources necessary to operate their walk-in cooler full of arrangements.

“Usually toward the end of the [first] year, you can kind of tell who’s got the drive and motivation and enjoys the designing aspect of it, so I encourage them to stay with it if they’re interested,” Karnes said. “When they move into that advanced role, they can kind of take over.”

Karnes doesn’t grade her students’ work; they grade themselves based on what they’ve learned about arrangements. She works closely with students in the beginning to discuss what can be improved, but for some of the advanced students, like seniors Brooklynn Swenson and Janess Blackburn, they can handle the rigors of the class and the shop.

“[Karnes] gives us a picture, and we have to figure out how to do it. The challenge is figuring out how to get there without disrupting as she’s helping other kids in the class,” Blackburn said. “She’s teaching us to be scrappy and how to do stuff by ourselves.”

Blackburn and Swenson recently created a number of balloon designs for a Candy Land-themed event at Yelm Prairie Christian Center. Advanced students have also made arrangements for the Rainier Education Foundation auction, weddings, anniversaries, school dances, holidays and other community events.

Swenson said students don’t have to necessarily be creative in order to be a part of the floral classes at RHS. She took two semesters as a sophomore before returning as a senior.

“I’ve learned that it’s a lot of hard work. It’s something new, and I’m not very creative. You get to have fun with it and grade yourself,” Swenson said.

Karnes enjoys giving students the same joy that she experienced as an upperclassman in high school and skills they can use after high school, even if they don’t become florists.

“Most of them aren’t going to be florists, but they’re going to work in business, they’re going to work with people, they’re going to work in groups and they’re going to work by themselves,” she said. “They’re going to have to stay motivated on a task and complete it. Those are all the soft skills or the employability skills that we work on here.

“My pitch would be to give it a try. Come on in and see what we do,” Karnes added. “If you’ve got an interest, this can fill as a career and technical education call. This can fill as an art credit, and it can fill as an elective.”

The program also offers make-and-take community classes where Karnes and advanced students demonstrate how to create arrangements with up to 20 community members. She encourages curious students to participate even if it’s just to fill an art credit to graduate.