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THE TEAM AT the Big Picture Soda Company donates a $2,000 check to the executives of Dollars For Scholars. Pictured, from left, bottom row: Susan Gibbs, director of The MET School Dollars for Scholars; Nancy Diaz, co-director of The MET School; Jean Merlain, CEO of the Big Picture Soda Company; Keith Scola Controllet, the Big Picture Soda Company; Devron Dugan, sales representative for Big Picture Soda Company; Anthony Moore, IT director of the Big Picture Soda Company. From left, top row: Carlos Garcia, bilingual sales representative for the Big Picture Soda Company.
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Employees of the Big Picture Soda Company, a student run nonprofit venture, donated $2,000 as part of a check presentation to the Dollars for Scholars college scholarship fund of The Metropolitan Career and Technical Center (MET), a Providence charter school.
The donation marks the one-year anniversary of the company’s launch, and represents the net profit generated from the all-natural soda now sold in more than 20 stores statewide.
Last year, MET students, in grades nine to 12, developed and introduced a fruity, carbonated beverage line to retailers as part of a course offered through the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Since then, the students have expanded the business to include numerous Whole Foods locations as well as Stop & Shop, specialty food stores, cafés and delis. (READ ABOUT other MET student projects.)
The MET is one of 50 schools across the country founded by the Big Picture Company, a Providence-based nonprofit. Big Picture’s approach to education features a personalized learning environment, internships in the community, academic rigor and strong family engagement. For more than a decade, 95 percent of MET students have graduated from high school and 98 percent accepted into a college program. •
