Creative Business Solutions from High School Students

By Mike Switzer

Published May 12, 2017 at 5:32 AM EDT

One trend in high school education over the past several years is to bring more real world career experience to students before they graduate. One school district in the Midlands of our state has taken that initiative to the next level.

Mike Switzer interviews Baron Davis, superintendent-elect for Richland School District Two and co-founder of Richland Two’s Institute of Innovation, known as R2I2.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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