The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Executive Paramus, NJ Team December 10th, 2025
My Executive Team for ‘Sounds and Subs”
Every semester for my Business Marketing, Management and Communications classes, I create one big Team assignment for my students. In a Commuter College, it is a lot tougher for students to get to know one another between their studies and their jobs, so I create these projects to foster learning, creativity and especially Teamwork.
This semester I taught three sections of Business 101-Introduction to Business, which is the entry level course to the Business/Hotel Management School. This is a tough course to teach as you always have students of various age groups and various levels of industry experience. The Fall semester was no different. This makes the class more interesting yet more challenging to teach. I still challenge them and test them to see what type of future executives they will become.
This semester I created three restaurant concept projects for my students, “Sounds and Subs”, a music store and sub/sandwich shop concept based on Mike’s Sub Shop in Boonton, NJ, “Farmer’s Market”, a farm to table concept based on The Corner Counter in Red Hook, NY and then “Pasta and Pies”, a sweet and savory pie concept with pasta dishes based on Nobel Pies out of Beacon, NY.
My morning Business 101 class worked on the “Sounds and Subs” concept where they were challenged to create a music based restaurant concept with a menu of creative sub and sandwiches, interesting salads, a mocktail menu, an opening party, social media and a gift shop selling items from their menu plus records, CDs and musical products. They also had to pick the location and figure out all the budgets.
They also had to create a stage area for bands and local performers for ‘Open Mic nights’. The results were amazing to see and what students with a little creativity, a lot of time (six weeks) and a little push can accomplish. I also liked the bands they chose to perform at their restaurants,
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. concept is an acronym for Bergen Community College Paramus campus where I work.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
Our Corporate site (created my one of my former President’s:
This class created menus with creative subs and sandwiches, salads, soups and unique signature desserts. They had to also create a mocktail menu. Some students kept the menus safe while others really put their heart and sole into it and showed how creative they were with their menus.
Each project had to include the location of where the restaurant would in what town in Bergen County, the social media, the menu, the opening party and what would be featured in their gift shop. They had a to figure out the budget for everything as well.
Before we did the formal presentation, I had the students create the ‘Holiday Presentation’ where corporate requested that our Teams represent the company in creating the invitation, menu and holiday greeting for the Corporate party in the New Brunswick headquarters. This is the presentations:
One Wednesday morning, December 10th, the class presented their ideas to me and these are the results of the individual Teams. Each Team came up with different and unique concepts.
The day of the project, I have the students dress in professional dress to present their ideas to the clients. The student executives presented their ideas on location, design, menus, social media and creating an opening party for the restaurant. They also came up with ideas for local musicians who could entertain on a nightly basis. The client was looking for a concept that would attract music lovers not just from the suburbs but from Manhattan, Brooklyn and Newark.
Here are examples of ideas of what the Student Consultants would work in the town that they chose:
Team Three making their initial pitch to the client
Team Three explaining their proposal for the floor plan of their restaurant
Team Five starting their presentation
What I found interesting what the musicians who the Student Consultants chose for both their Opening Parties to promote the restaurant and to play at the restaurant on a circulating schedule. They were some pretty sophisticated musical groups which showed me the tastes of these students in their music selections.
After the presentations were over, we had a Q & A and then we had a light reception. For each of my classes, I baked cookies, brownies and rice crispy treats along with a variety of chips, sodas and waters for all of my students to show my appreciation for their hard work.
It really was an interesting presentation and I was very proud of my students.
My Executive Team from the ‘Farm to Table’ Restaurant concept in our Corporate picture
Every semester for my Business Marketing, Management and Communications classes, I create one big Team assignment for my students. In a Commuter College, it is a lot tougher for students to get to know one another between their studies and their jobs, so I create these projects to foster learning, creativity and especially Teamwork.
This semester I taught three sections of Business 101-Introduction to Business, which is the entry level course to the Business/Hotel Management School. This is a tough course to teach as you always have students of various age groups and various levels of industry experience. The Fall semester was no different.
This makes the class more interesting yet more challenging to teach. I still challenge them and test them to see what type of future executives they will become.
This semester I created three restaurant concept projects for my students, “Sounds and Subs”, a music store and sub/sandwich shop concept based on Mike’s Sub Shop in Boonton, NJ, “Farmer’s Market”, a farm to table concept based on The Corner Counter in Red Hook, NY and then “Pasta and Pies”, a sweet and savory pie concept with pasta dishes based on Nobel Pies out of Beacon, NY.
My morning Business 101 class worked on the “Farmer’s Market” concept where they were challenged to create a restaurant with a menu of creative sandwiches, soups, interesting salads, a mocktail menu and a gift shop selling items from their menu plus homemade jams, jellies.
They also were tasked in finding local farms to supply the restaurant concept with fresh produce and meats. The results were amazing to see and what students with a little creativity, a lot of time (six weeks) and a little push can accomplish.
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. concept is an acronym for Bergen Community College Paramus Campus where I work.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
Our Corporate site (created my one of my former President’s:
This class created menus which reflected the seasons and had to choose one season to feature. The menu had to reflex fresh ingredients from that period with a selection of soups, salads, sandwiches and desserts. Some students kept the menus safe while others really put their heart and sole into it and showed how creative they were with their menus.
The students also had to create a gift shop concept with items from the menu, items like fresh jellies and jams, a variety of baked goods and then novelty items such as shirts, bags and aprons. For extra credit, I asked them to source the items for menus. I saw the most interesting results that afternoon.
The Holiday project normally serves as Quiz Four for my class but I wanted the students to concentrate on their Academics this semester so I used this as an extra credit project.
Each Team has been requested by corporate in New Brunswick, to create a proposal for the Corporate Holiday Party that includes a invitation with a Christmas themed logo, a menu proposal with an appetizer, entree, and a dessert along with a signature holiday drink.
Then the Team had to film a video greeting in English and Spanish wishing everyone a Happy Holiday season. They had forty-five minutes to pull it off and these were the result of that project.
One Wednesday morning, December 10th, the class presented their ideas to me and these are the results of the individual Teams. Each project was so different for the same concept.
Team Two’s diorama of their restaurant concept
Team Four presenting their project presentation
Team Three starting their presentation
Each Team had to present their ideas on their location for the restaurant, budget, layout, menu, gift shop ideas and advertising. Each Team had their own unique way of interpreting the restaurant concept and bring their fresh ideas to their Presentation.
Of my three classes in the Fall 2025 semester, this class came up with some of the most clever ideas and all five Teams seemed the most competitive of all the classes.
After the presentations were over, we had a Q & A and then we had a light reception. For each of my classes, I baked cookies, brownies and rice crispy treats along with a variety of chips, sodas and waters for all of my students to show my appreciation for their hard work.
It really was an interesting presentation and I was very proud of my students.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Executive Paramus, NJ Team December 10th, 2025
My Executive Team Team picture
Every semester for my Business Marketing, Management and Communications classes, I create one big Team assignment for my students. In a Commuter College, it is a lot tougher for students to get to know one another between their studies and their jobs, so I create these projects to foster learning, creativity and especially Teamwork.
This semester I taught three sections of Business 101-Introduction to Business, which is the entry level course to the Business/Hotel Management School. This is a tough course to teach as you always have students of various age groups and various levels of industry experience.
The Fall semester was no different. This makes the class more interesting yet more challenging to teach. I still challenge them and test them to see what type of future executives they will become.
This semester I created three restaurant concept projects for my students, “Sounds and Subs”, a music store and sub/sandwich shop concept based on Mike’s Sub Shop in Boonton, NJ, “Farmer’s Market”, a farm to table concept based on The Corner Counter in Red Hook, NY and then “Pasta and Pies”, a sweet and savory pie concept with pasta dishes based on Nobel Pies out of Beacon, NY.
My evening Business 101 class worked on the “Pasta and Pies” concept where they were challenged to create a restaurant with a menu of sweet and savory pies, creative pasta dishes, a mocktail menu and a gift shop selling items from their menu plus clothing and gifts. The results were amazing to see and what students with a little creativity, a lot of time (six weeks) and a little push can accomplish.
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
The Bergecco-Parc Banner is an acronym for Bergen Community College Paramus Campus where I work. I use this concept to teach the lessons in the book.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
Our Corporate site (created my one of my former President’s:
This class created menus with creative pies and what delicious ingredients that can be tucked into them, selective pasta dishes with side salads and unique signature desserts. Some students kept the menus safe while others really put their heart and sole into it and showed how creative they were with their menus.
One Wednesday night, December 10th, 2025, the class presented their ideas to me and these are the results of the individual Teams.
Each of the Team members are required to be in Professional dress when presenting their project to the fictional client as they would in task life.
Team Four starting their presentation
Team One presenting their presentation
Team Two’s winning presentation and I wanted to add the best dressed Team
Some of the creative Gift Shop ideas from Team Two
Team Four presenting their project featuring their logo
Team Five making their presentation of their Team
Some very creative advertising from Team Five
At the end of the presentation and after the Q& A, we take the Corporate picture, which I do to show feature recruiters what these students are made of and what seasoned executives they will make in the future. I really am proud of the students that accomplish this project.
Our Corporate picture at the end of the evening
At the end of the evening, I always have a small reception after the presentation. Many of the groups brought samples of their pies for extra credit and our President was the manager of a bakery and brought this beautiful sheet cake with the company logo on it. I thought this was very clever.
The President’s Cake at our reception after the presentation
I bake a variety of cookies, brownies and rice crispy treats along with providing a variety of chips, sodas and waters for the reception. It is my way of recognizing a job well done.
The students did a nice job interpreting what the ideas and theme of the project was and what the client might be expecting.
It was a very interesting evening of which I hope the students carry with them in the future not just to other classes but into the workplace as well.
Every semester for my Business Marketing, Management and Communications classes, I create one big Team assignment for my students. In a Commuter College, it is a lot tougher for students to get to know one another between their studies and their jobs, so I create these projects to foster learning, creativity and especially Teamwork.
This was the first time I had ever taught International Marketing and it was a challenge I really wanted to tackle. With International Tourism in a state of flux due to the economy and politics, what type of creative programming and offerings do we have to attract a foreign customer?
Promoting Bergen County, NJ for tourism has been one of biggest challenges I have had and how we get all these places to enter the modern era with a fresh approach to getting people to visit their establishment. The ‘Bergen 250-the 250th Anniversary of the Revolutionary War in Bergen County’ has been our most ambitious project to date. We took the website and plans the County of Bergen had planned and expanded it in every direction.
We added in special events, fundraising ideas, scavenger hunts and walking tours along with a new direction in promoting these sites through Digital Marketing and outlets like Tik Tok, YouTube and using QR codes so that the younger generation can use their phones interactively.
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
Our Corporate site (created my one of my former President’s:
As my International Marketing class entered its second month and before I ran the Midterm, I introduced the Team Project, similar to the one I created in 2020 just as COVID hit “From Revolution to Renewal-Exploring Historic Bergen County, NJ”:
The project that we started right before COVID closed the college:
With that class, I had planned a series of field trips once we got back from Spring Break but we never went back to campus. That project was done with work that had to be done online and with what we had because we could not leave our houses at that time. This project was to do what that project could not accomplish.
So I approached Vivian Davis, of the Bergen County Historic Division, who I had worked with for years in my time at the Department of Disabilities Services for the County, and who I initially worked with on the first project and asked her to help me again. She is running the ‘Bergen 250-the 250th Anniversary of the Revolutionary War in Bergen County’ event. Would she let me help her coming up with a different angle on advertising the event and some new ideas for special events and a fresh perspective on looking at the event from the students viewpoint?
It would be one of the most ambitious projects that I had ever attempted for this company model. She agreed to let me help in my own way plus be available for being a listening ear for the students and assist us on the Team site visits and tours.
It was a great partnership as she got much needed research and ideas for advertising while the students learned something new about their communities that they did not know. Even I learned about historical sites that I never knew existed and I have lived here off and on for the last thirty years. Everyone got something positive out of it and it was a win-win partnership.
I put together the project and had Vivian look it over and with some adjustments, it was a go and I presented to my students two weeks before the Spring Break in March. We would work on this project for the next seven weeks along with a series of site trips to places in the ‘Bergen 250’ roster. It would be an eye opener project for everyone involved.
The initial project concept for the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Team Project “The Bergen 250”:
I chose my Executive Team from a series of what I call “Alumni Students”, who I had in other classes and I knew their work and how they had performed in other Team Projects that I had run. I chose the remainder Student Executives from a look series of papers I had them write for the class promoting Foreign Tourism and Advertising.
Paper Two: Promoting McDonalds Foreign Food items for the American Market:
These two papers are how I determined who would be on what Teams and how they might perform on that section of the project. For the most part I was right. I saw this at the end of the project.
I broke the class into the following Teams: Marketing, Talent, Historical and Food Service with each Team having their own responsibilities (Please read the project). They were led by the President and Senior Vice-President of Operations, who reported to me as their CEO. Both of these students had participated in previous projects that had been equally ambitious.
The two weeks before the Spring Break, the Student Consultants got their game-plans together, divided the responsibilities and started their research on the historical sites being promoted by the ‘Bergen 250’. There are a lot of historical sites in Bergen County that date back to the Revolutionary War and before To the time of Dutch settlements.
When we arrived back from the break, I arranged a series of Field Site visits that I took my student to so that they could experience and tour the sites up close. These were also location trips for of Food Service division who would be arranging a series of special meals at these sites.
The first place the Team visited was the Garretson Forge & Farm in Fair Lawn, NJ. This historic home and grounds were going to be one of the locations for a special event for the Food Service Division.
The Garretson Forge & Farm at 4-02 River Road in Fair Lawn, NJ
We had done a promotional project on the site a few semesters before with much success and now we would be arranging a ‘rustic’ Afternoon Tea on the grounds and promoting the gardens with a Flower sale.
The Student Consultants starting a tour of the Garretson Forge & Farm led by historian Vivian Davis.
The students touring the historical kitchen
The students touring the historical room at the Garretson Forge & Farm
Our class picture at the site
Our host and ‘Client’ Vivian Davis joining us in the group picture
The trip to the Garretson Forge & Farm was one of a series of trips that I thought would be important to the students to get a feel for these sites rather than just passing by. We also could incorporate layouts and use of historical items for our Scavenger Hunt that people could download to their phones that our Marketing Team was creating for their part of the project.
The next week we went out into the field again, this time to the Baylor Massacre site in Old Tappan, Nj and the Haring Farm Cemetery, a tiny family plot on what used to be the Haring Farm both in Old Tappan, NJ.
The Baylor Massacre site is where the Patriots had gotten ambushed by the British on a tip from a local resident and instead of following protocol of war, the British bayoneted the troops and through their bodies in a ditch. The bodies had been rediscovered only in the last fifty years when they wanted to develop the land.
With the Haring Farm Cemetery, this was the final resting place of Abraham Haring, a prominent farming family in the area, on what was once hundreds of acres of land of the Haring family. As Vivian explained to us, these families always assumed that the farm would be there and in the family hands.
The Baylor Massacre site at 486 Rivervale Road in River Vale, NJ
Walking around the site before the students arrived
The site of the graves
The location of the old mill where the bodies were thrown
Vivian’s counterpart in the Historic Division, Colin, joined us on this day for this tour and was better than me on explaining everything.
Before everyone got there, I had been to the sites the day before and while the Baylor Massacre site is well taken care of by the County, the Haring Farm Cemetery was a mess of fallen fences, fallen trees and branches all around the site, making it dangerous to walk around. I even touched a dead branch and it came crashing down.
The entrance to the Haring Farm Cemetery at Old Haring Farm Court in River Vale, NJ
The cemetery looked so much nicer when it was cleaned up
I always felt like the family was watching me as I had such a positive feel at the site
Even the family tombstones looked a lot better
Being married into the Haring family via my father’s older brother’s wife sister in law, I felt an obligation to clean this place up. So in a two piece suit the next day, I got to the graveyard early, removed all the branches, raked the whole site, fixed the fence and raked the entire site, cleaning the tombstones while I was doing all this.
There is a good feeling when you honor and respect the dead
After cleaning the site, I got myself together and went back to the Baylor Massacre site and started to meet the students. Some arrived early and started to walk around to get a feel for the site.
Colin and I talking to the students about the incident at the site during the Revolutionary War
The Baylor Massacre site was going to be used for a Jazz Concert to honor the soldiers and Patriots whom had passed with a food truck event to go with it along with historical walking tours that evening. The evening event was planned with luminaries lining the paths and the gravesite being lit for the evening to honor those who had passed.
First we walked the entire site to understand the logistics of the event
After the tour and discussion of the site we took a few group pictures of us at the site. In some cases, this was the first time almost all the students had visited the site. This shows how these sites need to be better publicized.
My class at the site with the Memorial in sight
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Team Picture at the Baylor Massacre site
After the tour of the Baylor Massacre site, we headed up to the Haring Farm Cemetery, which was up the road. When we all got there, Colin explained to us that rather than burying their loved ones in a church graveyard, some families wanted to have their loved ones buried close by and again these families thought these farms would always be in the family hands.
Vivian had explained to the students at the initial meeting that one of the past times people had during the Revolutionary War was picnics at cemeteries and graveyards. This is where we got the idea of graveyard tours with a box lunch. We would create an interactive map with QR codes that people could tour with their ‘to go’ lunch.
We arrived at a cleaned up cemetery
The renovation of the site was done by an Eagle Scout
We took some time to understand burial rights of farming families and get a feel for the family members
We toured the small site and Colin explained to the students that Bergen County was dotted with these types of sites because of the number of family farms that once made up Colonial Bergen County, NJ.
We took our group shot while respecting the resting place
After all my students left after the both tours, I went back for one more look and again, I felt such a positive presence as if the family were so happy that we visited.
The weather prevented the next field trip and we had to concentrate on the project so after lecture, the students worked with their groups. Throughout this part of the semester, I would alternate between lecture one day and being ‘out in the field’ the other. This the students had a better experience of being ‘in the industry’.
As the project progressed and started to come together, we took our last and most ambitious field trip to Park Ridge, NJ, to the sites of the ‘Farm to Table Dinner’. This site tour included the Wortendyke Barn, the Pascack Reformed Church, where the Candlelight Tour of the Wortendyke family graveyard would take place and then to the Pascack Valley Historical Society, where the Cocktail Party would take place to open the event.
Then after the site visit, I would be wrapping the afternoon with lunch at Pompilios Pizzeria in Downtown Westwood, NJ for a Team dinner. It was a long afternoon but the students got to experience so much and see a lot.
Our first stop was the Wortendyke Barn, one of the few surviving Dutch-American examples of early American barns.
The barn in the early Spring on one of the few nice days of the week
Vivian met us again for the first part of the tour and explained how the barn was designed, who the Wortendykes were as a family presence in Bergen County and the use of the barn since it became County parkland.
We then moved on to take the next tour at the Pascack Reformed Church, one of the oldest churches in the State of New Jersey. Our tour was hosted by Pastor Sharon Gross-Gill, who had joined the church and loved the idea of the project promoting the church and its historic values.
The Team touring the second level of the church
The team touring the bell tower of the church
Our Vice-President of Marketing ringing the church bell. Each Team member could ring the bell if they wanted to try it.
We were then joined by the church historian who gave us the tour of the Wortendyke family plot
Touring through the Wortendyke family plot
Our Team picture with Pastor Sharon Gross-Gill at the Pascack Reformed Church graveyard
We then moved on to a quick tour of the Pascack Historical Society, which has an interesting display of early Dutch artifacts and only Wampum making machine (Native American currency) in the United States Almost all my students had not seen these things before.
The Pascack Valley Historical Society at 19 Ridge Avenue in Park Ridge, NJ
I have to thank the amazing support of the Pascack Valley Historical Society Board for coming out in full force to help support this project.
The Board touring with us at the museum
The Team with Board member, Peter Meany, as he explains how the Wampum machine worked.
Our Team group picture with the Board of the Pascack Historical Society
I wanted to thank Board Members Kristin Beuscher, Peter Meany, Ralph Donnell Jr., Christopher Kersting and Patrick Dolan for being our hosts, leading the tours and some of them showing up for our presentation of the final Presentation.
After the tours were all over, I took the entire Team to lunch in Downtown Westwood for a Team building pizza lunch/dinner. It had been a long day and the students had worked so hard the whole day, it was nice to break bread with the Team plus the pizza here is excellent. We had a really good time at lunch and everyone got to know each other a little better.
Pompilio’s Pizzeria & Restaurant at 233 Westwood Avenue in Westwood, NJ
Members of the Talent Team with the Marketing Team
Members of the Historical Team dining with the Executive Team
The pizza here is delicious and I love taking my Teams here for lunch
This was the last of the field trips before the presentation two weeks later. One of the pitfalls of the projects that I did that semester was the Spring Break in March and then the Easter Break in late April which had some of my students traveling for the break. I am happy to say that everyone showed up and did their work.
The presentation went by really well and was well attended for an afternoon event. Several parents as well as boyfriends and girlfriends showed up. Vivian and Colin both showed up with their boss from the Division, so the real life ‘clients’ were there for the presentation.
The formal Presentation on YouTube of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. “Bergen 250-The 250th Anniversary of the Revolutionary War in Bergen County, NJ”:
Senior Vice-President of Operations Gabriela Chavasco welcomes everyone
The Executive Team leading the Presentation
Vice-President of Operations Brandon Robertson leads the presentation of Foodservice Special Events
Vice-President of Marketing Bart Potensky leads the Marketing Team in their presentation of the Advertising gameplay
Vice-President Kate Trinidad leads the Talent Team on the inside operations of keeping the company well supported from Corporate
After the successful Presentation was over, we took the official Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Corporate pictures.
It was a job well done for the entire Team. I also want to thank Vivian Davis and Colin Fitzpatrick from the Historic Division of the County of Bergen in New Jersey for all their support and guidance and feedback on this assignment. It really was a “Team Effort” from everyone involved.
In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
I had done a blog promoting the farms (what is left of them) in Bergen County and thought this might be an interesting subject to research further. Farms are destination not just for walking around but for shopping, dining and for entertaining.
I chose Old Schraalenburgh Farm because of the beauty of the farm during the various seasons, the quality of the food and dining options and the location of the farm in comparison from the other larger farms like Alba and Demarest, who have bigger options such as apple picking and hayrides.
Old Schraalenburgh and Farm Stand at 110 Schraalenburgh Road in Closter, NJ:
I talked with their manager one day after class and he seemed intrigued by the idea of new promotions for the farm stand and restaurant. So I put the proposal together, presented the project to the students and then I arranged the Team Field Trip and then we visited as a class.
The Proposal for the project “The Farms of Bergen County, NJ: Visiting Old Schraalenburgh Farm and Farm Stand”:
On a sunny October afternoon, we spent class time touring the farm with the manager of the farm. It was the first time some of the students had had a field trip like this before for a business project.
Our Team visit to the farm in early October
Our host and partner in the project, Manager of the farm Nick Griepenburg, explaining the workings of the farm
Explaining the growing season at the farm and the honeybee business
Visiting the honeybee hives and the honey business on the farm that supplies fresh honey to baked items and for sale in jars on the farm
Visiting the chicken coops which supply eggs for baked goods and fresh eggs sold in the farm store
The Teams feeding the chickens on the farm and hearing about how they supply items sold on the farm
The Team on the Farm
The Team at the end of the tour
After the tour, we went took our Team picture for the Paramus Team working with the farm. This helps the Student Consultants create their own memories of the project and is part of their resume building.
Our group shot at the farm
After the tour, I took the Student Consultants to lunch at Pompilio’s Pizzeria at 223 Westwood Avenue in Downtown Westwood, NJ for a pizza lunch and time for them to get to know each other. These are always successful meals and gives everyone a chance to talk.
Pompilio’s Pizzeria & Restaurant at 223 Westwood Avenue in Westwood, NJ
Team Two having lunch together and creating their game plan for the project
Team Three enjoying a pizza lunch together
This is how we create Team Building and getting the Student Consultants to get to know one another. It is an important part of the project. We break bread with one another and it is how we start the Team project. It was a nice afternoon over good food and conversation and how we are going to market this wonderful farm to foreign and domestic visitors.
Now four Teams will compete with one another to create a Digital Marketing Campaign, Special Events and promoting their wonderful bakery, restaurant, ice cream and flower businesses. Each Team will create a new logo, a commercial for the farm and develop three holiday events to bring families to the farm.
What was good about the project is that is that I hope it helps build their bakery, jelly and ice cream businesses as well.
Their ‘cottage’ businesses during Valentine’s Day
The homemade ice cream business
The homemade jelly business
One event is “Spring in the Air”, will promote the flower gardens and the floral business. They will create an event entitled “The Bunny Visits” with an Easter Egg Hunt on the farm with candy souvenirs. Another event is “The Spirits of Halloween”, for families looking for Fall events like Hay Rides, Corn Mazes and a Haunted Barn event. They will create a special Halloween menu from the Farm’s restaurant list for visitors. It will also promote the pumpkin and apple business.
The last event in development for the Teams is a winter event entitled “Mr. and Mrs. Snowball Arrive”, a secular event enjoyed by all families. This event will open the holiday season on the farm.
After the tour was over, the students spent the next five weeks creating their game plans and putting their creativity to good use developing commercials and shooting them on the farm, formulating logos to rebrand the farm and figuring out how to bring more traffic to the farm.
The student presented the project to myself and to Nick, the manager of the farm who helped me judge the presentations. It really was a great afternoon of new ideas and new ways of looking at the business.
The Corporate Website for the Farm Division of the Paramus Team:
For Quiz Four, I developed the Holiday project to build comrade and prepare the students for their formal presentation. The students are requested by Corporate to create a Holiday menu, an invitation and a holiday greeting in English and Spanish. They have forty-five minutes to create all this and it is always fun to watch how it all comes together.
The PowerPoint presentation on the Holiday Project:
The video on the Holiday Project:
The Presentation Day December 11th, 2024:
I have to admit I was a little nervous about the Presentation to the Farm that morning. Nick , the manager of the farm showed up on time as well as several parents and friends of the students showed up to watch as well. It ended up being a very fine Presentation with not too many hiccups and I was very proud of the students for all their hard work on the project. Since much of the work was done ahead of time, there was time to fine tune the project before the Presentation and that made a difference.
What I liked about the Presentation was the at the Introduction was done in English and Arabic with my Introduction in English and Spanish. About six languages were spoken during the Presentation and I saw some students confidence rise when they spoke in their native tongue. This gave the Presentation a more International appeal and I hope for that when people watch these videos all over the world in the future.
Me with my SVP of Operations Moamen Abdallah and President Gianna Cantatore after the presentation
The Corporate shot of me with the Paramus Farm Team after the Presentation
What I liked about the projects that this Team created is that they are so workable and can be adapted quickly with not a lot of expenses. Since the farm has all the products the Teams used either to raise money or use as refreshments, its a win win for the farm.
I found Nick, the Manager of the farm, to be very open to the student’s suggestions and it gave him many new ways of looking at the farm. After the Presentation was over, there was time for a Question & Answer session where Nick made some really good points. The students did an excellent job creating menus for the restaurant, interesting ideas on promoting the ice cream, bakery and honey businesses and general merchandising and packaging ideas to promote all the wonderful merchandise sold at the farm. It really was an afternoon of creative Marketing and all of this was done in five weeks.
What was the best part of this project was that I felt we made a real contribution in promoting this wonderful farm for domestic and foreign tourism and hope it has an impact in the farm’s future.
Now you have to go and try their farm burger!
Yum!
The Farm during the Christmas holidays after the project was over December 2024:
The outside of the farm decorated for Christmas
The decorations were very festive
The outside of the farm at the holidays
The inside of the Farm Stand Restaurant during the holidays
The delicious looking holiday pies at the farm stand
In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
I wanted to create another project on Destination Tourism for one of the town’s in Bergen County to follow the projects previously created in Paterson, Rutherford, Westwood and Glen Rock. I narrowed it down to two towns, Hillsdale and Ramsey, NJ.
I toured both towns and looked at their parks and then studied their town websites for events taking place in town. The reason I chose Ramsey is that they had the Old Stone House Museum, where we could create special events and promote this wonderful historical site for tourism.
The Ramsey Team Project for Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.: “It’s Razzling in Ramsey-Be a Tourist in your Own Town”
I presented the project to my students, created an Executive Team with many Alumni from my Introduction to Business and Marketing classes and broke the class into a corporate hierarchy with a Marketing Team, Historical Team, Special Events Team and a Talent Team. I had the students get their What’s App group chats in order and get to know one another.
I was very proud this semester to promote many of the Student Executive Consultants from previous classes to lead this project. My President this semester had been a Vice-President in two previous projects and through time and experience on the previous project led a wonderful Team. My Senior Vice-President of Operations was a former Vice-President as well on a winning Team for a previous project as well. Several of my Vice-Presidents and Team Leaders were Student Consultants from projects over the last three semesters and they really ‘stepped up to the plate’ for this project.
Then we took the Team Field trips to Ramsey to better understand the town and how it works and what everyday life is like in the town. Being ‘out in the field’ is very important to the class to better understand how create a game plan for the town.
On a warm October afternoon in lieu of class, we all met in Finch Park in Ramsey to tour the park where the location of the Strawberry Festival would take place as well as other activities would be planned. We were joined by the Borough Administrator, Bruce Vouche, who joined us for our afternoon tour of the town.
The Student Executives at Finch Park at the start of the tour
We made our introductions, I took attendance and we proceeded tour the park where we would be holding the event. We looked at the logistics of the park with parking and locations for things like tables and tents. Bruce was able to give us ideas on things like police involvement in traffic and security and permits that would be needed. Before we left the park, we took our group picture.
Our Team group picture at Finch Park
Then we all drove to Downtown Ramsey where we would be touring the business district. We would be looking at traffic patterns, parking and where the Farmers Market takes place and where the historical Trolley line that ran through Bergen County once stood along with the Trolley Building.
Our Team group shot by the Ramsey Train Station where the Farmers Market takes place
After we finished the tour of the downtown, I invited the Team for our corporate lunch at Anthony Franco’s Pizzeria, where we ‘break bread’ and enjoy a meal together to get to know one another and put our game plans together. It is a nice way to end the afternoon.
The lunch was very successful and the students had a good time getting to know one another. This is the way the Teams jell.
The Marketing Team ding with one another
The Historical Team planning their projects
The Talent Team Dining with one another
The Special Events Vice-President an Team Leader and the Divisional President having lunch that afternoon
After lunch was over, the Teams stayed for a bit and got their game plans in order and left to go back to classes and work. There would be a lot of Team meetings and get togethers in the future. In class, I would let the Teams meet to work on the project, followed by Board Meetings on the progress for the project.
Right before the Thanksgiving Break, I was able to arrange with the Borough Administrator and the President of the Ramsey Historical Society s tour of the Old Stone House Museum. It took a lot of effort and phone calls and emails but we got the tour of this historical site.
The Old Stone House is run by the Ramsey Historical Society. The Student Consultants were given a tour by the President of the Ramsey Historical Society, Daniel Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy toured with the Student Teams all the rooms in the house and the barn. We got to see all the artifacts, room designs, displays and then tour the barn display. This helped the Marketing and Historical Teams with their proposals and gave them some time to film their ideas. It was a very interesting tour.
The Marketing Team touring the Old Stone House
The General Store concept of the home when it was center of the community
The Talent Team touring the house
The Dutch Bible inside the Old Stone House
The Historical Team touring the Old Stone House
Inside of the Old Stone House of the Second Floor Toy Display
Touring the barn on the house grounds
Touring the Barn on the Old Stone House property
The Student Consultants touring the barn on the property
The inside of the barn with farm equipment, a sleigh and historic markers
The Farm equipment in the barn
Historical Marker for the Revolutionary War years
Ending the tour of the herb garden in the front of the house and the stone basement
Our Team Group picture in front of the Old Stone House
These tours of both the Downtown Business Districts, Parks and the Historical sites gave the Student Consultants a perspective on what the town looks like, how the town is run and what the vibe of the town is to live and visit here. From the Student Consultants developed the project.
This project had several different components to it that we wanted to discuss and we wanted to invite the Council to join us for the presentation so a small group of us attended the November work session at Ramsey City Hall.
I presented a copy of the project to the Council and explained what the students were creating for the town. The Council took an interest in the project and that is when I invited the Council members to the presentation.
Since so many of them had full time jobs and the students were presenting the project to me on December 11th, that was also the night of their next work session. So they invited us back to City Hall to repeat the presentation that night to the Council in Chambers. Myself and the students who attended the meeting were thrilled by this and it upped the game.
I went back to the class and asked who would like to come to the Council meeting and about half the class wanted to attend the meeting. So I arranged for the class to attend the Council meeting that evening. Who knew it was going to rain the way it did that night?
The presentation during the day went by really well. We had a few parents and friends attend the afternoon presentation and we had a few interesting questions. I for one had many on how the students were going to implement the ideas the way they explained it.
The Marketing Team explaining their game l pool plan for the Borough of Ramsey
The Talent Team explaining their game how they were assist our employees
While the presentation went on, the other Teams got to ask questions of their classmates. It helped each group know how they assisted in the other Team’s work.
The Talent Team’s Corporate gift for the night of the holiday dinner
The Corporate Team listening constantly to the presentation on the Paramus campus
The Historical Team had to create a Historical Promotional video of the Borough, a Tour of the Old Stone House Historical Museum and for extra credit created a very clever video on the “Mr. Pumpkin” event.
The Marketing Team created three videos to promote the Borough of Ramsey: The Promotional Commercial of Ramsey, the new Town Song and a promotional video on the Ramsey Farmers Market. All of these created a pleasant and fun approach to what the Borough of Ramsey is like to visit to Dine, Shop and Entertain in.
The Marketing Videos:
The Town Promotion
The Town Song
The Promotion of the Farmers Market (Extra Credit)
The Talent Team presentation:
The Talent Team
The first run of the Presentation in the classroom went by really well and it got a nice applause. After the Questions & Answers portion of the project, we took our Corporate Team Picture:
The Bergecco- Parc Consulting Inc. Ramsey Divisional Team after the Paramus Presentation
CEO Professor Justin Watrel with SVP of Operations Kamil Malec and President Demetre Gratiashvili
After the Presentation, I held a small reception for the class where I bake cookies, brownies and muffins for the party along with chips and snacks, soda and water. It is a way to celebrate a job well done.
The President and SVP of Operations then created the website for the project:
Later that evening, the students met on an extremely rainy night, the Executive Team and part of the Team who could meet that night met at Ramsey City Hall to present the project to the Mayor and the Council of the Borough of Ramsey. It was an hour and a half presentation of the same project that impressed the Council.
The Presentation was made at the 7:00pm Ramsey Work Session Meeting on December 11th, 2024
The YouTube Presentation to the Borough Council in Ramsey, NJ December 11th, 2024
The Student Consultants really dazzled the Council with all sorts of ideas on promoting the Borough of Ramsey for domestic and foreign tourism by promoting the Downtown Business District, the Old Stone House Historical property and the Borough for the holiday season. Many of the ideas could be adapted with little budgetary concerns depending on how they wanted to run them and added on to many existing programs the Borough already ran.
The best part that seemed to impress the Council was the Town Promotional and Historical videos and the new town song “Welcome to Ramsey” created by one of the Student Executives. This was all capped off with a special sampling of homemade Strawberry Shortcake that the Team Leader of the Special Events team baked as an example of what could be done to expand on the Strawberry Festival. I could tell by the looks on the faces of the Council and many of the parents who attended that night that they were more than impressed. They treated this as it was a real Consulting Project and a very Professional one at that. “Hats off” to the students who were there promoting this project.
The Corporate Holiday Project: Quiz Four
For Quiz Four, I create the Bergecco-Parc Holiday Party Quiz where each of the Teams has been asked by the Corporate Division to create a proposal for a Holiday menu, an Invitation and then create a holiday greeting for Corporate. The class has 45 minutes to pull it all off and it is a great Team Building Assignment. Everyone seems to love this quiz because it has nothing to do with the textbook.
The Holiday Team Presentation ideas from the Paramus, NJ Team
I was another very successful project by Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. On the last day of class, I presented my President Demetre Gratiashvili with his official President’s Corporate hat. Only the top executive of the firm receives this. It was an honor well-served.
This is a perfect beginning for many of these students who will begin their careers in corporations all over the world. I could not be prouder of them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Spring 2024 Executive Team for the “Bergen 250: Visiting the Garretson Forge & Farm” project.
In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
This semester I thought back to our project last semester on the Bergen County Historical Society and the success it was and how impressed both myself and the Executive Board of the Bergen County Historical Society both were that evening.
The Project “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Touring at the Bergen County Historical Society”:
I think a lot of these historical sites do not get the attention they deserve and with the 250 Anniversary of the Revolutionary War happening in two years, these wonderful sites needed to be showcased. They needed to dusted off, revamped and a fresh perspective was needed to tell their story. This is where the project for the “The Bergen 250: Tourism at the Garretson Forge & Farm” came from.
The project “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Bergen 250-Touring the Garretson Forge & Farm”:
That and the tour the former President gave me during the holiday season when I begged to see the Christmas decorations for the Sinterklaas celebrations were still up. I needed pictures for my blog, “VisitingaMuseum.com” and “MywalkinManhattan.com”.
My blog on Touring the Garretson Forge & Farm on VisitingaMuseum.com:
When I toured the home during the holidays, I approached them on using the home as a future project and she seemed to like the idea. This is where the partnership for the project came from.
Our first visit to the site was on “Pea Day” in March 2024 for an extra credit assignment to start the project off so that the students could see the grounds and experience the farm and its attributes.
Visiting the Garretson Forge & Farm in Fair Lawn, NJ for “Pea Day”
Visiting the farm house and gardens on “Pea Day”
The volunteers planting at the Garretson Forge & Farm on “Pea Day”.
Observing the Master Gardeners and Volunteers on “Pea Day”.
The students coming in on their day off to attend “Pea Day”
Everyone took turns getting their hands dirty on “Pea Day”
We also had a special field trip to the Garretson Forge & Farm on class day so that everyone could tour the farm and the farmhouse. Outside “Pea Day”, it was the first time anyone in my class had ever visited the site.
We started the tour on a rather gloomy night. We had just had a rain storm but that did not stop our visit. Our whole class attended the trip (it is a mandatory part of both the project and the class) and it was a interesting tour for all of us.
Our host was the President of the Friends group that helps raise money for the site. We started the tour after the rain storm with a trip through the barns to see some of the old farm equipment. The were some interesting artifacts that included farm plows and horse drawn articles to carriages and sleds.
Then we toured the gardens where the volunteers had just finished the plantings of the summer fruits and vegetables. The President explained that the fruits and vegetables that were grown here were donated to a soup kitchen in Paterson. I thought this was a great idea.
Then were toured the farmhouse, which I had just been to for a private tour during the holidays. The kitchen was set up for a harvest meal now and I explained to some of the students how food was cooked back then in the hearth.
Then we toured the small museum and looked at the family tree, where generations of Garretson’s had lived. Our last stop on the tour of the farmhouse was the main living room where the Sinterklass event was held and many of the talks on domestic life on the farm.
This is where we concluded the tour and many students asked questions about life at that period of time. After the tour was over, I took the students out to dinner as part of their Team Building. It is important for the students to get to know one another.
The start of the tour near the barns.
Our tour of the grounds, the barns and life on the farm.
The grounds near the second barn. Touring the gardens at twilightTour of the kitchen.
Discussing the expression “Sleep tight don’t let the bed bugs bite” and where it came from.
Discussion on the second floor.
The second floor had been added on years later.
Discussion on farm living.
Discussing the furnishings and how the farmhouse ran as a farm and a home.
Continuing our discussion of life on the farm.
Talking about life on the farm.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. tour of the site.
Our group shot with President of the Garretson Forge & Farm April Barth.
After the tour was over, I took my class to Bella Vita Pizzeria in Fair Lawn, NJ for their first Corporate dinner and Team building exercise. The dinner was wonderful, and the pizza was excellent. It really warmed us up after a cold night of touring and the students seemed to enjoy getting to know each other over a hot pizza dinner.
Bella Vita Pizzeria at 1761 River Rd A, Fair Lawn, NJ 07410:
My Teams dining together at a “Corporate” pizza dinner.
The company Team dining together that night.
The aspect of dining together is an important part of the Team Building exercise and you can tell by the pictures that my students enjoyed it.
The next few weeks were preparing the project for the presentation. We had a visit from Vivian Davis, who I had known for years from working in the Division of Disability Services when she was one of our speakers. She now was running the “Bergen 250: The 250th Anniversary of the Revolutionary War in Bergen County” and we had incorporated part of this in the project. I had given her a copy of the project and she came into the class to discuss what she was planning and the significance of the Revolutionary War had on the towns in Bergen County. It was a real history lesson on some of the towns in Bergen County and some of the historical homes and sites in Bergen County.
This project was a bit more intense than my morning class. While they designed the rigors of the Bergen Room Bistro, my evening class was putting together an entire game plan of Revolutionary War events for the ‘Bergen 250’.
I had the students working on an Independence Day event, a Children’s Walking tour of the property, a Mid Summer dinner with a Revolutionary War themed dinner, a continuation of the Sinterklaas event that would extend visiting the decorations in the house another two weekends and then a new Digital Marketing campaign for the site with a commercials and posters.
The night of the presentation on April 24th, it all came to life. The students each showed the PowerPoints with their ideas, menus and commercials to promote the site. They really had some interesting ideas.
Finishing the evening with my Student Consultants was great. The students were so excited to finish and I have to admit it was quite the journey for me too. It was a lot of work (and money) to pull this event off but it went by well. The Board of the Garretson Forge & Farm really seemed to enjoy it and asked lots of questions.
Vivian Davis, who is running the “Bergen 250″ asked the most important question of the night, if I was to run all of these events, would your age group come?” This got the students thinking and one said, “We are a busy group with college and work. If you want our age group to come, you are going to have to cater to things we like.” I thought that was fair and gave her something to think about as well.
We then took our Board picture. I am always so proud of my Student Executive Consultants. They come dressed for work.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. “Bergen 250″: Garretson Forge & Farm” Executive Team.
I want to thank my President of the Team Project, President TJ Fischer and SVP of Operations Camila Alvarado and the entire Team of Vice-Presidents, Team Leaders and Team Members for tackling this very difficult and very detailed job of promoting this wonderful historical site with such detail.
The questions on the project were excellent and direct and audience was very impressed by how thorough the project was done that evening. To all my Student Consultants, you did an excellent job!
In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
Recently our college was talking about recruitment to the school and the outreach to the high schools. I had seen the recent “Open House’ flyers and emails on campus and sent to my email and I thought the event could have a bit more pizzaz to it. You were trying to recruit students to come to the college and I thought there could be more to it. Working from our Homecoming, Welcome Week and Ambassadors programs that we had done in the past, I thought of “Go Bulldogs Go!-Open House Spring 2024”, a reinvented Open House with dinners, events, concerts and fun activities for the high school students, their parents and current students to enjoy.
“Go Bulldogs Go-Open House 2024 at Bergen Community College Project:
From here I picked my Executive Team and the various Divisional Teams to complete the project. We had the Talent Team, which pays for everything and get the Benefits package together along with the creating the Holiday Party at the end of the project. The Entertainment Team, who would provide all the musicians and musical performances to all the events that we had planned, the Food Service Team, which created all the menus, meals and ideas for serving food and snacks at all the functions. The most important Team was the Marketing Team, who had to promote the whole program to the high schools, Administration, Students and Parents, to all the events and to the Alumni. It was a big job and we only had seven weeks to put the whole thing together.
Being a CEO does have its headaches though. When you have a class of thirty people working on a project, there is a lot going on and there are those who try to ‘piggyback’ off other students and some just disappear. I had both of those. There were a lot of students I had to work with going forward on this project and a lot of leading I had to do. Having three projects going simultaneously was a lot of work for myself and my Executive Teams but I knew all of them could do it.
This was a project that I really wanted to come to life. I think we can do more for our student recruiting and wanted the programs to really shine to show the best of the college and all its attributes. The first day of the project, I broke the class up into Teams and discussed the project.
The Open House that we were creating was a three day event where we engaged both high school students and their parents, the current student body of Bergen Community College and Alumni.
I challenged the students to put a Pep Rally together for the sports teams on campus, a active concert and games, a nice International dinner and a breakfast brunch with music and an active tour of campus while promoting the campus for students to attend. The tours were created to show the best attributes of campus such as the music labs, the AI labs, the Ciccone Theater, the Bergen Room, Gallery Bergen and all our sporting facilities. There is so much at our campus that people do not see on these tours. I also do not like the idea that we burden students with financial aid issues not instead of when they accept coming so I put less emphasis on that. I want them to know all the great cultural things they can enjoy when they do decide to come to Bergen Community College.
As part of the class, I had an in class field trip around campus. I could not believe that most of these students didn’t know that all these things existed on campus. I should have learned from previous classes. This is how this all got inspired. When I asked all the students what their experience was like on campus, most of them just said that they came to class and went home. They never ventured around the campus. A few ate in the cafeteria and one or two had been to the Ciccone Theater and a few more had heard of Gallery Bergen.
The in class trip included Gallery Bergen, with its new contemporary art exhibition, the Bergen Room (in its old location) and the Ciccone Theater, where Professor Baumgartner was doing dress rehearsals but always has time to talk about the Theater Department. That really helps. Then we went outside to the new outdoor courtyard to show the students the logistics of where the concerts and some of the cultural events would take place. Then it back to the classroom to start getting the groups to work on the project. The majority of the students finally got what I was talking about and got to work. Then we started our weekly board meetings.
After seven weeks, the Teams were preparing for our Presentation on December 6th, 2023. I have to say that I was going through a lot in my personal life. Sinterklaas weekend had been the weekend before and all I had done is run around the Hudson River Valley with the Snowflake and Sinterklaas festivities in both Kingston and Rhinebeck, NY. There was a lot of running around the two towns plus running to Ringwood Manor before I left to take pictures of the mansion’s decorations for Christmas. I was not too sure how much time I would have after Christmas (I found that I had none) and was on a picture taking tour.
Then I had my own class presentations in Digital Marketing and Customer Relations class with much stress to get them right (I got ‘A’s on them both) and then had two days of my own students presentations to be followed by another presentation I had to make in Bloomingdales President Marvin Traub with his book “Like No other Store in the World” for my Hotel Sales & Marketing Class (another ‘A’) and then lead to another weekend of picture taking upstate of historical homes and towns. I never sat still and got very little sleep.
In the morning, I had presented my “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock, NJ” project with my Marketing class and that went off perfectly so I had high expectations of this class. My President and Senior Vice-President of Operations did not let me down. We had a few hiccups with the presentation but overall it was excellent and I was very impressed by the work and effort the students.
The project results were wonderful and it really showcased the campus with wonderful events to engage the students and their parents over a three day period. I know if the campus really put this whole event on, we would recruit a lot more students with no problems.
What was nice that evening was talking with the parents after the presentation. They were not only impressed by their sons and daughters presentation but impressed by the whole class. That all keep wondering how I get them all to dress up and especially shave. I always reply the same thing, I grade them. I really think though it is the pride that the students have in doing a good job and wanting the look the part of being an executive representing the company. This project prepares them for a future that is unknown to them but now a lot less scary.
This contains all the commercials, artwork, the PowerPoint and headquarters plans.
The Holiday Party Project:
In lieu of the traditional quiz, I have the students get back in their groups and create ideas for a Corporate Christmas Party for the New Brunswick headquarters. It always amazes me what the Teams can do in an hour. The funny part by this point is that they are so used to working with one another it becomes second nature to them. This quiz is a nice way to end the semester and maybe create some new friendships amongst the students.
In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
This time around I got a request from a fellow professor who wanted to promote Gallery Bergen, our on-campus art gallery, for outside tourism. I liked the challenge of that because I have used Gallery Bergen in the past for cocktail parties and gatherings in my other projects such as Welcome Week, Homecoming and visiting the campus. I had always opened my events or included Gallery Bergen in some way in the past projects.
Now Professor Tim Blunk, the art professor who runs the gallery, gave us the challenge of how-to bring people from the Bergen County community into the gallery for the then current Faith Ringgold exhibition “From Jones Road”. Since I had so many students in the class, I thought about a competition between three groups as I had for the “Caribe Cafe” project in which each group would a presentation on the same subject, but I thought we really needed to promote other parts of campus as well.
The interview with Professor Tim Blunk on Gallery Bergen. The inspiration for this project.
So I added The Bergen Room, our Culinary Department’s student dining room and the Ciccone Theater and the Theater Department. I asked all the professors who are involved in these different departments, and they were all enthusiastic about the project. They have been helpful in many of my projects over the last decade.
This time around I had an Executive Team to run the whole show. In the ‘Caribe Cafe’ concept, I had Team Leaders run each Team but with no one in charge of the whole project. I needed an Executive Team to run the presentation, put the website together, put the Team Wrap Up party at the end of the project together and create the budget.
I was very lucky in that one of my students had been the Team Leader for Marketing for our “Springfest” project was in my Marketing class and I knew who was going to get the top spot (and as the CEO/Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc I know who’s talented). I picked another student whose “Be a tourist in your own Town” paper on Dumont was excellent to be the Senior Vice-President of Operations. Both ladies work was wonderful and could not have been more professional. They both did an excellent job on putting the whole project together and running the presentation.
The President and Senior Vice-President of Operations ran the presentation, engaged with the Executive Team their ideas for the Office Space for the Team and their ideas for the Wrap-Up Party. Their ideas were well received by the Team.
Then each Team presented their section of the project which consisted of ideas to promote their site, presentation of their commercial and their interview with the professor who ran that division of campus. Each Team member discussed their section of the project and the ideas they had to bring in more of the Bergen County community to the college.
The Proposal for the project “It’s Cultural on Campus”:
CEO Professor Justin Watrel with President Valery Cardona and SVP of Operations Rachel Montpellier and their Team of Vice-Presidents and Team Leaders and Members.
The day of the presentation since it had to be done during the day all four of the professors who assisted in the project were in classes but one parent did show up and she was the one who took our picture. That made me happy.
The presentation was wonderful as each group presented their ideas to better advertise and promote each facility to the Bergen County and beyond target market of customers. The student dining room was presenting lunch each Thursday afternoon at 11:00am, the Faith Ringgold exhibition was in full swing at Gallery Bergen and the Theater Department was promoting their showcase so there was a lot going on at the Bergen Community College campus. The students presented the way to get people there.
We had a small Q & A because there were just two of us there. This was followed by a light reception for the students before they had to head to their next classes and work. I could not have been more proud of a group of students accomplishing this project.
Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. headquarters thanks you too!
Commercials:
The Gallery Bergen Team:
An Excellent job promoting the “Faith Ringgold” exhibition (in Spanish)
The Bergen Room Team:
The Ciccone Theater Team:
We got to see part of the latest production from the theater and interview with the director
You can see the interviews with the Professors for each department on the full presentation.
I wanted to thank Professors Tim Blunk of Gallery Bergen, Professor Jim Bumgardner of the Theater Department & Ciccone Theater and Professor Rhonda Drakeford and Chef/Professor Aaron Morrisey for their assistance in making this project the success it was for the students. A special thank you to my boss, Dr. Pierre Laguerre for his constant support on making these projects possible.
A big congratulations to the Marketing Team. You are the ones that brought the project to life!
In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
This semester I wanted to do something different and I decided to partner with our new foodservice vendor for the college, American Dining Creations and figure out a way to promote the business to the students and faculty. I know that the pizzeria has been very successful as well as the Starbucks on the first floor but the cafeteria has been struggling even with the change of the menu.
So the proposal that I had for the students was how can we market, advertise and promote our food service facilities. How can we engage with the students and faculty to get them to eat here? How could we promote the Loyalty program to get more people eating in all outlets?
I also wanted the students to create new brand logos to have a theme more related to the campus. I wanted to see their creativity with creating commercials to promote the outlets. I know I expect a lot in a short period of time but every semester, I know the students are up for the challenge.
As usual I break the students up in Teams lead by a Vice-Presidents and Team Leaders. I found last semester with the ‘Caribe Cafe’ concept that I still need someone to coordinate the whole thing, so I choose my President and Senior Vice-President of Operations from the pool of student resumes that I get every semester. Some are good, some are not good and some are indifferent but I have knack for raw talent. I do every semester.
I chose my president and SVP of Operations from the pool of students and they did not disappoint me. They held their meetings, organized their meetings with their Vice-Presidents and Team Leaders, organized their Wrap Up Party and had to find their office space. It is quite the challenge.
Every semester I have those students that just do not get the project and can’t seem to handle the work. They challenge the work and just don’t want to do it. This is a reflective of how they will behave in the work force when they graduate. These are the ones who when they fill out faculty evaluations can’t gasp that I preparing them for a life after graduation. This reflects in their presentation.
It was a challenge as it is every semester. I have my internal challenges with the students. I have to keep everyone motivated. This is why I have an Executive Team to run things. I let the students work this out amongst themselves.
Like all my projects, I really got to see the student Team’s creativity. I asked the students to come up with a game plan to bring more students and faculty to dine at the cafeteria. The would create new logos for the outlets, new menus and food ideas and a series of commercials to promote the two outlets. I also asked them to think of design ideas for the cafeteria. There were a lot of creative ideas that came from rebranding the two outlets.
Where there were a lot of creative and unique ideas was in the menus and the diversity of food that the students had for the main cafeteria.Some Teams developed dishes with an Asian fusion influence. Some came up with Tapas and many Spanish influenced ideas. Turkish food and a Middle Eastern influence has become popular and I saw many different ideas for this as well. Some kept it classic and wanted to see more sandwiches and maybe an ice cream bar.
All the ideas kept the concept fresh and it was not always the traditional burgers, chicken sandwich and fingers and subs that the cafeteria in the past was featuring. This is good as a sample but students tastes are changing. Also with such a diverse student body and people being more adventurous eaters, I think their ideas were brilliant.
The night of the presentation went off very well. Like all my other presentations, I wish the attendance had been a bit better. We had a nice nice amount of family and friends of the students but no one from Administration came which bummed me out. I thought this was a major way to contribute to a new vendor with input from the students.
My Executive Team just like the morning class really impressed me. Some students who I was not sure how they would present really impressed me with their ideas, their creativity and especially the way they were dressed. The students came ‘Dressed for Success’ in suits, blazers, dresses, skirts and matching pant suits. I have a lot of convincing of the students that this will be the wave of the future when people start heading back to the offices in droves. People will want to see well dressed workers in the office.
Some of the things that impressed me the most was the use each Team had in creating a mobile App for the cafeteria. I thought this was a good idea and could control orders, pick up and food waste. The commercials were especially impressive with a lot ways to get students in the door. What I also liked was some Teams thought out of the box and came up with creative solutions on how to redesign the cafeteria dining room to make it more user friendly. I liked the idea of couches, new seating and things like ping pong games and video games for the students in between classes.
By the end of the evening, Jack seemed very impressed by the whole presentation and asked some interesting questions. He told me later on he could not believe all of this came from students. I told him from the beginning that this is his target market and you have to ask them what they want from the food service on campus. Even some of the parents walked up to me and could not believe this was a student presentation. They were impressed by the professionalism of it all. I told them that this is where their tuition dollars were going.
We concluded with a small reception of my homemade cookies and brownies where once again nothing was left. It was another success promotion by the executives of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
The project “Feasting at Bergen Community College: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner”:
The Executive Team for “Feasting a Bergen Community College: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner”:
Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. President Angelo and Senior Vice-President of Operations Olga Medina and their Executive Team of Vice-Presidents, Team Leaders and Team Members on Presentation Night.
The Team Presentations:
Team One Presentation:
Team Two Presentation:
Team Three Presentation:
The week after the presentations, I gave the students Quiz Four. Just like last semester, I decided to make ti a group project and had the students create a Summer Barbecue concept. Read an imaginary letter from one of my partners about organizing a Corporate Barbecue dinner and the students had to create an invitation, a menu and then a video welcome. Everyone in the class got an “A” and here is some of their ideas:
Spring Quiz Four (The Shared Project with my morning class):
I find this a lot more fun than a standard quiz and the students get a kick out of the Team building. That and everyone got an “A” on Quiz Four.
I wanted to thank Jack Yukel from American Dining Creations for being so helpful to me and to the class and so supportive of this project. It was his input that made this Team project so successful. Second I wanted to thank all the students in my Introduction to Business class who made this project come to life. It is your creativity each semester that make this projects the success that they are for the class.
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