Tag Archives: Professor Justin Watrel CEO & Co-Founder

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-Three Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Heights Flower Shoppe-We keep Growing!” Team Project August 5th, 2025

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. logo of the Six Trees (based on the six founders of the company). Our Motto:

“A Tree grows from the strength of its roots and not from the top of the Tree” meaning that all employees opinions are noted and respected.

My boss contacted me after my Summer I class was done and asked if I could teach the Summer II class too with the same schedule After the success of our first class project, I said yes but with one catch. I had one less week to teach the class.

My first class’s final exam was on Monday and then classes started Wednesday. Because we met on Monday’s and Tuesday’s were the class days we would not meet until the next week and that fell on the Forth of July weekend so in the first two weeks of classes we met the first Tuesday of the second week of classes and that put us two weeks behind.

So on the third week of classes, we finally met with the full schedule. I had a lot of catching up to do. That being said, I had to get their Team project done and we were playing with time. I had to have at least two weeks to do the project and unlike the Critchley’s Candies project, I wanted to keep it closer to home.

The blog on the successful Critchley’s Candies Team Project:

My blog on Critchley’s Candies:

https://mywalkinmanhattan.com/2025/07/31/critchleys-candies-812-kinderkamack-road-river-edge-new-jersey-07661/

I thought of three Merchants in Hasbrouck Heights that I thought could use some help with their Digital Marketing and Online presence. I talked with Roy Vorisek, the owner of Heights Flower Shoppe, who I have known for years and asked if he would partner with me this semester. I thought it might be a nice idea to promote one of our Merchants this time around. He loved the idea, but the only problem was that he would be leaving for a trip with his family before the Presentation and would not be returning until we finished class.

The Heights Flower Shoppe at 209 Boulevard in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ (decorated for Halloween)

https://www.heightsflowershoppe.com/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurant_Review-g46497-d25518949-Reviews-Heights_Flower_Shoppe-Hasbrouck_Heights_New_Jersey.html?m=69573

My review on LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com:

I was concerned that no one would be there to see the Presentation but he could send one of his family members who worked at the store so she could give her opinions. We then worked out of game plan of things he wanted to promote and ideas for Digital Marketing that the students could work on. I presented him all my ideas based on his needs in the store and then I presented the Team Project to my students.

The Proposal for “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Heights Flower Shoppe-We Keep Growing”:

We were under a lot of time constraints just like the Summer One course in that we only had six full weeks of class, and we would miss two more days of class, so we were going to be rushing through this project. Funny though, this is what I told the students they will be experiencing for the rest of their lives. Last minute requests from both bosses and clients that you might have to achieve and finish in a weekend.

So I prepared the field trips. The first one was an optional extra credit trip the Thursday after I handed out the assignment and then the next Tuesday I met me students for a formal tour of Heights Flower Shoppe and then our Team lunch at Bella Pizza a few doors down. This is when the real work begins.

In a now in a class this quick, you do not have the time to goof around and I made my students fully aware of this. So I arranged the field trip with Ray and his staff, made sure that all my students attended and we started the tour of the store.

We started the tour with a discussion on the history of the store and Ray’s career in the flower business

The owner, Ray Vorisek, gave my students a talk first on the history of the store, his career as a florist and how the whole family participates in the business. Then he took us on a tour of the second floor that will be used for the new Christmas shop and bridal salon in the future. Then I let my students walk around and talk to the owner and his staff, who were working feverishly getting out orders that afternoon.

My students listening to Ray discuss the flower business

Ray explaining the assortment of flowers

My students touring the store and studying the merchandise

Our Team picture after the tour

The students had about a week after this tour to finish and present the project to myself and the owners niece, who would be working at the store as the rest of the family members would be away on vacation. We finished the visit in less than an hour.

As part of the tour, I took the students out for lunch five doors down at Bella Pizza at 197 Boulevard for Cheese pizza and soda. I find that when a Team ‘breaks bread’ with one another, they gel together.

Bella Pizza at 197 Boulevard in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ

https://www.bellapizzahasbrouckheights.com/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.ie/Restaurant_Review-g46497-d13840427-Reviews-Bella_Pizza-Hasbrouck_Heights_New_Jersey.html?m=69573

Our ‘Business Lunches’ are a way for the student consultants to get to know one another and start talking about the project in a more casual manner. There was a lot to discuss and it is easier over lunch with a few laughs.

The Special Events and Marketing Team having lunch

The Special Events and Marketing Team dining together

Members of the Marketing and Special Events Team dining together

Ray Vorisek and his daughter, Gabriella with our Senior Vice-President of Operations

It was a really nice lunch and I got to talk with Ray about some of the challenges of the business and catch up on ways he was promoting the business. Heights Flower Shoppe is a very successful business with a good following but the issue is that his core customer base was getting older and things like the way holidays were being celebrated were changing. It was going to be out job to tap into what the younger customers were looking for and how to reach them.

For the next ten days, my students worked hard, had challenges to overcome, co-workers who could be somewhat uncooperative and worked late nights to finish the project in time for our presentation on August 5th, 2025. I thought for a barely two week time frame, the student consultants did a wonderful job on the project and here is their hard work.

The PowerPoint Presentation:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JDFmug-kFsZ1IKHsOQNvTS-9bab_MhUc/view?usp=drive_web

The Corporate website:

https://fenilpatel1110.wixsite.com/project-heights-shop

The new Website for the store that was created by the Marketing Team:

https://daort600.wixstudio.com/flower-shop

This was the commercial that the Marketing Team put together for store to promote it for the Digital Age:

The Commercial on Heights Flower Shoppe

The Team Presentation on YouTube

The Presentation was a huge success with both the Marketing Team and the Special Events Teams presenting their ideas with new logos, interesting Tik Tok and YouTube videos promoting the store and new special promotions such as ‘Children’s Bundles’ and holiday events highlighting Christmas, Easter and the Wedding season.

Ray’s niece, Nicole, attended the Presentation and gave us wonderful feedback on some of the ideas. Which ones were realistic and which ones would need more work. I do admit the students can be elaborate with the project and their ideas, but it is best to present all ideas first and then tailor them down to the clients budget and logistics.

The Corporate Picture for the Paramus Team-Heights Flower Shoppe with CEO Professor Justin Watrel at the end of the Team Presentation

After the Presentation was over, I hosted a small reception for both the students and our attending guests. I bake cookies, brownies and bring in snacks like chips, sodas and waters for the students and their guests for a job well. Our last time ‘breaking bread’ with one another for the conclusion of the project. It was a bit rushed but I think the Team did a great job.

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Corporate reception for the Paramus Team

The next week before Final Exam, we had the Team Wrap up and each student discussed what they learned from the project. This is where I get my insights on the project and where I need to tailor my CEO skills. Just as much as the students learn from me, I learn so much from them as well. “From the students we are taught” from the ‘King and I’.

Then I presented my President of the Division her official Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Presidential hat, of which she seemed very excited to receive. It was a very difficult project to do in less than two weeks and she was up to the challenge. Respect well-deserved!

It was another successful Team Project.

Day Three Hundred and Forty-Four Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents the project “Critchley’s Candies-We’re Making It!” June 23rd, 2025

This is the first time in my career at Bergen Community College that I have taught a summer class and it was a very interesting experience. I have taught Business 101, which is the Introduction to Business class for many years but not in a modified seven week period. Normally this important entry level course is taught in fourteen weeks.

With an issue with my car the first day of class and then the Memorial Day holidays the next week put us two days behind and then I had to work on a modified Team project for the students. This would be a challenge. I had done all the on campus events I wanted and there was not much time for one of the bigger more detailed events. So I decided to reach out to a local business to help me out.

I was going to use the florist across the street from the campus and thought that would be the perfect client. The couple unfortunately was selling the business and even though they liked the idea thought it would not work since it would not help them as they were looking for a buyer of the business.

I then had another idea with a business I passed all the time driving up and down Kinderkamack Road on my was back and forth to work, Critchley’s Candies in River Edge, NJ. The business had been around for seventy years and I had met the owner once before. I thought would he help me out?

Critchley’s Candies at 812 Kinderkamack Road

https://www.critchleyscandies.com/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Restaurant_Review-g46776-d33257078-Reviews-Critchley_s_Candies-River_Edge_New_Jersey.html?m=69573

https://www.facebook.com/CritchleysCandies/

https://www.instagram.com/critchleyscandies/

I was very lucky in that the store had a new owner, Rossana, who was willing to partner with me and liked my proposed ideas. I was lucky that she was looking for ideas to expand her business so it was a win win for the two of us. This would give her free marketing and a fresh perspective from a younger customer and would give the students an opportunity to help a small business owner.

I made two trips to the store to get some ideas and look over the merchandise. They have a nice selection of candies and chocolates and a whole new line of handmade candies that are made in store.

The inside of Critchley’s Candies

The selection of candies at Critchley’s

The selection of handmade candies

Once myself and Rosanna, the owner, worked together to fine tune the project, I brought my class to the store for their field trip. We had a two week deadline on this project and there was a lot to do (they actually did the whole project in ten days).

Over the weekend, I picked my Executive Team and fine tuned the project with more details to each section of the project. It had to be pared down because unlike many other Team projects, we had only two weeks to pull this off and present it to the client.

The proposed project: Critchley’s Candies: We’re Making it!

On one of the rainiest mornings we had in a long time (it never stopped raining for a month), I met my students to tour the candy store. We had a really nice time touring the store that morning and Rossana’s full time employee, Nancy, led the tour with myself and the class.

My students on the tour of the store

My class getting a feel of the merchandise

Nancy, one of the employees of the store led the tour discussing the different lines of merchandise.

We discussed the different types of gummies, jellies and hard candies the store carried.

The video of the tour of Critchley’s Candies that day:

My class and I touring Critchley’s Candies with Nancy, one of the long service employees at the store. She explained all the candy lines to us and what chocolates were made in house.

She then discussed the individual chocolates that are on sale for creating boxes for gift giving.

Me tasting the homemade Milk Chocolate Covered Oreo

When we finished the tour, we had a candy tasting. Everyone got a chance to taste either a homemade Milk or Dark Chocolate Covered Marshmallow or Oreo Cookie. It was a sweet way to end our tour of Critchley’s Candies. Then it was on to our Team Lunch.

After the tour was over, our class took a group shot at the store with Nancy.

After the tour was over, I took my students on their first ‘Business lunch’ and we met as a class at Pompilio’s Pizzeria at 223 Westwood Avenue in Downtown Westwood, NJ. I have taken students here before for lunch on about five other Team projects.

This gives the students the opportunity to get to know each other and have some Team bonding. The pizza is also excellent here too and they have very fair prices and a wonderful ‘school special’.

The Team Lunch:

Pompilio’s Pizzeria & Restaurant at 223 Westwood Avenue in Downtown Westwood, NJ

https://www.pompiliospizzeria.com/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46923-d4643410-Reviews-Pompilio_s_Pizzeria_Restaurant-Westwood_New_Jersey.html?m=69573

Some of my students at our Business Team building lunch

The pizza here is excellent

From this point on the students were on their own to create the project. We have already had a series of Board meetings in class and I have had to face two students dropping the class ( I just don’t think this is for everyone).

For the next two weeks, technically ten days, the students worked with their teams on completing the assignment. This meant meeting on their own time and trips back to Critchley’s Candies to film commercials and Tik Tok videos.

We had our last Board meeting the day before the Presentation to wrap things up and go over any missing items. I strictly informed about dress code and performing the role as Student Consultants. From this point on, it would be up to them. They were also assigned two papers to finish the project up.

Paper Three: What would I change in the store if I bought Critchley’s Candies from the owner:

Paper Four: What did I learn from the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. project:

On Tuesday morning, June 24th, 2025, the Presentation took place in our classroom. The first mode of business for each student was to pass the ‘Dress Code’ grade. I have students come in formal business attire. My way of turning group of Gen Zers in to Gen X. Image is very important when trying to sell a concept or program and you must look the role.

With the exception of a few hiccups, the whole class looked very professional considering it was 95 degrees outside. It not been this hot all week but it felt like 100 degrees. Thank God the air conditioning was working in our part of the building that day and the classroom was very comfortable.

The Presentation started late as one student got a flat tire and we had to wait for him. At the same time the owner of the store had an issue at her full time job that got resolved just as the student arrived in class. We started the Presentation at 11:00am and now it was full attention on the project.

Copy of the PowerPoint presentation:

The President this semester, Peter McNamara and the Senior Vice-President of Operations JC Abella welcoming everyone and starting the Presentation.

Marketing Team Member Kim Perez discussing the history of Critchley’s Candies to the audience.

The Marketing Team discussing the new ‘Store Jingle’ for the commercial

The Commercial on YouTube:

This includes the store jingle at the end of the commercial.

The students also created a Tik Tok video on the store and its wonderful selection of chocolates.

The Tik Tok video:

The Tik Tok video on Critchley’s Candies

Marketing Team member Matthew discussing the creation of the ‘Store Jingle’

The Product Development and Special Event’s Team discussing the QR Codes Program for the store’s boxed and individual candies.

Product Development/Special Events Team Member Aisha Martinez discussing the new ‘Summer Camp Care package’ proposal. This included a prototype of the packaging.

Team Leader of the Product Development/Special Events Liam discussing the ‘In-house Birthday Party’ program. This caters to that jaded Bergen County child who has seen it all. This birthday concept was very creative. It made it fun to have a birthday at the store.

His proposal for the ‘Birthday Party’ invitation with Vice-President of Product Development/Special Events Joel Fife to the right and President McNamara and SVP Arabella to the left looking on.

The Presentation concluded on time with a Q&A and a discussion on some of the ideas needing adjustments. Overall the owner of Critchley’s Candies, Rossana Rossi, who I partnered on this project seemed very impressed by the results. Then we took our Team picture with the owner and her employee, Nancy, who had led us on the tour of the store two weeks earlier.

The Paramus Critchley’s Candies Team with the owners of Critchley’s Candies.

After the Presentation was over, everyone took their jackets off and I hosted a reception for the students and our guests. I baked cookies and brownies and had an assortment of snacks and sodas for the students. I thought this went by very well for a class that had been here for only seven weeks.

The reception at the end of the Presentation

This is when I can say that I am very proud of my students!

The Official Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. website for the project with QR codes, Commercials, Logos and pictures from all the visits and the presentation:

https://pmcnamara139481.wixsite.com/bergeccocritchleys

The Presentation on YouTube:

The full presentation of the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. of Critchley’s Candies Promotion.

For a project that had a two week turnaround, the Student Consultants did an excellent job with the Team Project.

Day Three-Hundred and Thirty-Eight “Lertaw Investment Inc. presents Financial Team Presentation and Gameplans” April 28th, 2025

I have never taught Personal Finance and the way it has been taught in the past by previous Professors I had no interest in following. I could not see a course that was to prepare you for your financial future that could be that dry. A course with online quizzes and tests could not possibly be the best way to learn about retirement. Having experienced investing with the stock market, CD’s and Mutual Funds, I know personally the pitfalls of investing in this current very shaky market and that’s what I wanted to teach the students. Not to be afraid to start NOW!

The logo for “Lertaw Investment Inc. -Growth comes from Within”

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 Lertaw Investment Inc.

So for my personal finance class, I got away from the traditional Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner that I use for my Marketing, Management and Communications classes and created Lertaw Investment Inc. Lertaw is my last name spelled backwards (okay, I thought it was clever).

So I created the scenario of the Team Project was I was the CEO of a family Investment company with headquarters in Newark, NJ, where it was founded back in the early 1800’s. This company was an offshoot of another family company that was founded after the Revolutionary War. All the students were new hires who were on probation with the company and had to prove themselves.

The Original Project and Teams with the First Task:

With so many students in this class, (I originally started with 35 students that went to 31 by the time the class was over), I broke each Team up into a Team of five lead by a Divisional Vice-Presidential and an Investment Advisor who would be their second in command. They were assigned with giving everyone a part of each week’s tasks.

For the next four weeks what I would do is give each group a series of tasks and activities that the student financial consultants had to work on as a Team. Each Team was given a budget of $25,000 and had to use this investing account to pay for client purchases and for Team expenses.

While I was doing that, each individual student had to write their own investment paper. The scenario I gave each student was that their great aunt died and left them $5,000 with the stipulation that they could not spend the money but invest it for their future. I gave a series of scenarios here as well. I figured this paper would force them to think more about the overall project. It really got them thinking.

Paper Three: Creating a Personal Financial Plan from a $5,000 inheritance from your Great Aunt:

The first Task: Opening a CD at your local bank for $1,500.

Over the next three weeks while I had the students working on their Team Project, I gave each of the students tasks to invest in for their money from their Great Aunt. The first task was they had to go to the bank and get information for opening a CD for $1,500. This way I forced all these students to talk to their banks to get a perspective on HOW to invest their money in the future.

Paper Three Task Two:

The next task was to spend $1,200 on a series of stocks that include one Tech Company, two Food Companies and one Banking Company

Paper Three Task Three:

The last task was to open a Bond for $300 (I made a math mistake and it would have been $3,000). Oh well, this way they had money left over to keep for emergencies.

While the students were writing Paper Three for the class and doing their research for the their personal papers, which was a big part of their grades, they were using some of their personal research for their Team assignment. This way each Student Investor brought their own research and perspective to the project. This way the project got five different opinions.

Task One for the Team Project included:

(This is part of the initial package that I gave the students)

Invest $4000 in two high interest CDs for a client. This is where the individual research came in handy and each student could contribute their research on this part of the project.

Buy $6,000 of stocks in Two Tech Companies. Two Energy Companies, Two Foodservice and Two Travel Stocks. The Student Investors got to pick the companies and the amount at each company that they wanted to spend.

Plan a Cocktail party with creating a menu, invitation and budget between $1000 and $1200 in our Newark Headquarters. The Cocktail Party was going for be for both perspective clients and established customers plus Corporate members wanting to meet everyone.

Task Two of the Team Project:

The Vice-President and the Financial Advisor had to take a Business Trip to Boston, MA to meet with clients. The rest of the Team will stay behind in the office. You have to set up a travel budget for your trip for Lertaw Investments for the trip. This money will be deducted from your $25,000 so you need budget. The company will let you travel First Class if you want but it will lower your investment amount.

The top executives had to book either a Railway Ticket Round Trip or an Airline Ticket from Newark to Boston and back, a hotel room for two nights (Breakfast is included in the hotel stay), meals for lunch and dinner and extra money to see the sites in Boston if you want. Please set up the travel budget for two people and how much the Business Trip will cost.

They had to buy $5,000 worth of Mutual Funds (Vanguard, American Century Investments, T. Rowe Price etc.) for the client. You need to tell me what funds you want to buy and how much. The client is leaving this at your discretion.

Their Client wanted them to buy $2,500 worth of McDonalds stock. They want to buy as much as possible with the $2,500 so you need to watch the stock price of McDonalds and what day you will buy it. Your Team needs to tell me when you bought it, how much you bought and at what price did you buy it at.

Task Three of the Team Project:

Invest $5,000 in bonds and they could choose the terms to get the best yield.

Task Four of the Team Project:

Lertaw Investments is looking for a new Healthcare plan. The company wants proposals for new Dental, Visual and Medical plans for each of your Teams

Please sell $1,500 shares of McDonalds stock and note on your account whether you had a profit or loss on the sale. Please by $1,500 worth of Chipotle and Krispie Kreme stock. You can buy whatever shares you want of the stock but the client wants the most for their money. The remainder of the $1,000 worth of McDonald’s stock will stay in the account and please monitor the profit/loss on this investment.

Corporate liked your proposal for the cocktail party and your budget for the business trip up to Boston. They have reimbursed you for the expenses so put the money back into your account. You know must buy $1,500 worth of Automotive and Airline stocks. Please pick two automotive and one airline stock. The client is leaving the discretion of the number of shares of stock up to the Team.

Task Five of the Team Project:

The Team needed to arrange a Team Dinner for the members of your Team. Please pick a restaurant in Newark, anyone you like, and tell me the name, provide menu and pictures and what your Team will order. Remember you are considered over 21 and can drink so please think of the wine and cocktail menus as well. Your budget for dinner must be $1,000 and below. Remember that tax and tip need to be included. Some restaurants have fees for parties over five so this needs to be included.

With the remaining money in their budget, they could buy stocks of their choice. The Client now trusts you and your Team can use its discretion.

To end this project, the Team should have a remaining budget of $1,000.00 left or as close to it as possible. There are always emergencies that need to be covered and there should be this amount left in your account. The rest of the money should be spent.

The final part of the project, the Team should finish their last report with a complete breakdown of how your Team spent their $25,000.00 budget as the final page of the report and I wanted to see everything footnoted.

Each class I would do my lecture on the chapters in the book which covered the topics in the scenarios and then leave them the last half hour to meet with their Teams in class. Each Team then had to submit their findings in a full report, which they had three attempts to get correct. Only one Team of the five did it correctly and even they made mistakes.

I also set up a prize for this two step process. The Team with the best report would get ten (10) points added to their Midterm (and trust me, the class Midterm results were not that good) and then that Team would get promoted to the President and SVP of Operation’s and create the Corporate website and PowerPoint presentation for the project. I swear, I have the eye for Corporate talent and the Team that won did an excellent job with both.

The pitfall with this project like any Team project, both in school and in the workforce, there are those who do not want to do their work or milk their share of the project so they do not have to do anything else. I had to ‘fire’ (i.e. fail) one student, who did not seem to care anyway (he spent the entire time in class on his cellphone texting his friends). I also had Student Investors who spent three weeks working on a simple Cocktail Party or Team Dinner (which had nothing to do with Personal Finance), so I had to grade them on this and deal with items like this.

I had to be a very proactive CEO with over thirty Student Investors doing all different types of investing and projects for their teams. The Vice-Presidents and Team Advisors had to hand in a report to me three times before their Final Team Report was due the week before the final exam and do their breakdown of how they spent their money. You see what people are made of when they had to do basic math. I had to check each report thoroughly, add up all their business expenses and make sense of everything. Only two groups got close to a professional type of report but I could see where the frustrations came in. Again some of the Team Members did not do their job properly and I had to deal with this. I now know why so many CEOs are so frustrated today and this is just a simulated project. Still I was very proud of these students who accomplished so much and learned the book’s subject matter on their own in a pace that made sense to them.

This is what learning is about especially about Personal Finance. You have to spend the time figuring it out for yourself and that is the hardest part of life.

The Project:

Here is the PowerPoint:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o-jnsPXdF2BHltZrAvcK1FOd-to7_s22/view

Here is the Presentation on YouTube:

Here is the website on the Team Project:

https://lertawinvestmentinc.wordpress.com/

Team One:

Team Two:

Team Three:

Team Four:

During the Presentation, each Team had fifteen minutes to explain how they spent and invested their money, how they planned their dinners and cocktail parties and how they researched their business trip to Boston.

I was floored by each Team’s creativity and the selection of stocks, bonds, and CDs they chose as no two Teams were the same. With the exception of the winning Team, all the other Teams got an ‘A-‘ on their projects. I found this is a better way to teach rather than trying to get them to learn it from the book.

I am constantly amazed at what happens when you challenge students to learn. We are in a new era where just reading the book and exams will not be the norm. I just love the challenge of seeing students learn and having fun doing it.

I hope you all enjoy this Team Project.

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-Eight Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “The Bergen 250: Visiting Bergen County, NJ Museums: Promotional Plan for Visiting the Behnke Museum, Bergenfield Museum, Walking Tour of Coopers Pond Park and a Graveyard Walk of the South Presbyterian Church” December 11th, 2024

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

Contact Us

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.

The Behnke Museum Project:

I created the Behnke Museum promotion as a way to promote this wonderful museum located right next to the Bergen Community College campus for tourism. It is such a terrific museum but it never seemed to have any visitors. Not only that, it seemed that no one at the college including the Professors had been there or even knew what it was as they passed it everyday on their way to work. This project, which was the first project in the class, was going to change all of that.

With the help of Fred Behnke and the Board of Volunteers, we partnered together to help the museum promote itself for tourism and put the museum on the map. I created with the help of the Executive Team and the Student Consultants, a series of promotions, commercials and ideas to bring traffic into the museum. The Student Consultants also created an Instagram site for the museum, helped create a website and translated pamphlets into Spanish, Korean and Pilipino to help promote the museum to an outside audience where English may not be the first language. We started the project out with a tour of the museum.

The Fred Behnke Museum at 330 Paramus Road

https://www.facebook.com/FritzBehnkeMuseum/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46712-d4973052-Reviews-Fritz_Behnke_Historical_Museum-Paramus_New_Jersey.html

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

The Sunday Extra Credit tour that my class at the museum

On the Sunday before the formal Class tour of the museum, I gave the students extra credit towards their project to come in on a Sunday and tour the museum at their leisure. About a third of the class took advantage of it.

The next class, I picked my Teams, set up the Executive Team and then it was ‘full steam ahead’ with the project.

The Team:

The Project:

We arrived at the museum later that week for our formal walking tour of the museum and the class was broken up into two teams one upstairs and one downstairs.

The Class Field Trip to the Behnke Museum as part of the project

The Team Field Trip to the Behnke Museum

Touring the first floor of the museum

After the tour was over, we took our official Team Corporate picture for the project. Even though it was a gloomy day, it was all energy and smiles and a lot of promise to help the museum gain more visitors.

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Behnke Museum Team picture with the Museum Volunteer Staff

The Student Consultants had a week to put the Presentation together and create a commercial to promote the museum and their PowerPoint on their ideas to create excitement at the museum. Here is their project Presentation and PowerPoint on the project. Please remember that they had seven days to do this.

The PowerPoint:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1atn7BlTHfG88tND0P8fU1yNzmEpFrEG4/view?usp=gmail

The Video of the Presentation:

https://www.youtubeeducation.com/watch?v=krZNmHevETA

The Team Picture after the Behnke Museum Presentation to the Museum Volunteer Staff:

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Paramus Team for the Behnke Museum

The Behnke Museum Volunteer Staff was impressed with the students ideas and thought there was a lot good ideas that they can use.

Commercial Group One:

Commercial Group Two:

Marketing Commercial Team Two:

Commercial Group Three:

Marketing Commercial Team Three:

Commercial Group Four:

The Bergenfield Tourism Project: The Bergenfield Museum, Coopers Pond Park and South Church Graveyard Tour Project:

This is when I got the idea of doing the same project in a larger form. I saw the Bergenfield Museum, a small gem on the other side of Coopers Pond Park, that did not much traffic considering the museum is open both during the week and the weekend. The building was an original Demarest homestead and the family had their family plot in the South Church which is located right next to the park. So I approached both the museum and the church to partner with me in creating a project to promote this corner of Bergenfield, NJ for tourism.

Cooper’s Pond Park during the Summer months

So I set up the next series of tours for my students that encompassed the Bergenfield Museum, Coopers Pond Park and the historical South Church graveyard where the Demarest family plot was located. The Bergenfield Museum building is the original Demarest family homestead so it tied in nicely to the project.

Walking through Coopers Pond Park inspired this fascinating project

https://bergenfield.com/notices-announcements/oem-notices/cooper-s-pond-update

Two weeks after the Behnke Museum project, I introduced this project and the next week we took a walking tour of all three sites starting with walking through Cooper Pond Park, a WPA project and one of the most beautiful and underrated parks in Bergen County.

We met with the Bergenfield Volunteer Board at the museum to start the tour

The Bergenfield Museum at 100 Cooper Street in Bergenfield, NJ

https://bergenfield.com/museum-society

https://www.facebook.com/bergenfieldmuseum/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Profile/R4960NKjustinw/photo/776032151?m=19905

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

The President of the Bergenfield Museum Board, Joanne, helped me organize the Team Field Trip of the museum. She had four other docents from the Board helping in four different rooms so each Team would follow each other through the rooms. Each Team had about ten minutes in each room for the docent to explain the collection to them. The Student Consultants got to visit the museum on their own time as well.

Our class being greeted by the President of the Bergenfield Museum, Joanne

Touring the Living Room of the old Demarest Homestead

Touring the old Dining Room and the Chair Factory display in the museum

Touring the Kitchen area of the old homestead

Touring the Military Room of the museum

Discussions of the function of the kitchen on the farm

Discussing the Chair manufacturing in Bergenfield, NJ

The Student Consultants touring the Living Room

The Teams taking notes during the tour

After our tour of the museum was over, we took a group picture outside of the museum with the Board of the museum.

The Student Consultants from Bergecco-Parc Consultants Inc. visiting the Bergenfield museum

After we took the group shot, we walked through the park again to my take note of its Depression era past and beautiful views and colors and made our way to the historic South Presbyterian Church and its historic graveyard where the second half of the project would take place.

South Presbyterian Church at 150 West Church Avenue

https://www.southpresbyterian.net/

https://www.facebook.com/southpres/

The historic marker for the church

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g46301-d32842329-r988828266-South_Presbyterian_Church-Bergenfield_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

https://visitingamuseum.com/author/jwatrel/page/2/

The Demarest Family plot in the church graveyard

Touring the South Church graveyard for the historical walking tour with members of the Church volunteer staff

The tour was lead by Bob Carpenter, a historian who is helping renovate this historical graveyard

The tour of the historical Demarest family plot, which ties into the museum building’s historical past, was lead by historian Bob Carpenter, who is helping the church renovate and restore the graveyard. Mr. Carpenter explained to us how he was fixing all the plots and historic tombstones and how the maintenance of the stones needs to be carefully done.

Mr. Carpenter explains how to maintain the tombstones in these historic graveyards

Video of the walking tour of the historic graveyard:

Both the church volunteers and Mr. Carpenter explaining to the students how families were buried in the 1700and 1800’s

We finished the tour that afternoon inside the South Church to learn its history in the community. Though it will not be part of the project, the church offered the students a glimpse into Bergen County’s past as the original church was built before the Revolutionary War.

The Student Consultants touring the pews of the South Church

Once the tour was complete, the Student Consultants had a better understanding of the locations where the project will take place.

The new project will include walking tours, historical aspects of all three locations, and ways of creating a Destination Marketing Plan for domestic and foreign tourism. This will take place when the Student Consultants present their ideas to myself and the museum and church staffs.

The student consultants had four weeks to this project and put together their game plans. The had to put together commercials to promote the Bergenfield Museum, Coopers Pond Park and the historical cemetery of the South Church. As an extra credit assignment, I had the students develop a Halloween walking tour with food and create a separate commercial for this of which three of the for groups completed.

Quiz Four-The Holiday Project

Before the Team made their final presentation, they created Quiz Four-The Corporate Holiday Party

The Proposal for the Holiday Party Project:

Video of the Team’s Holiday Party Project:

They did a great job on the ideas for the Corporate Holiday Party and came up with some clever menus and logos.

The Holiday Project PowerPoint:

The Christmas Greeting from the Executive Team:

Executive Greeting:

Team One Greeting:

Team Two Greeting:

Team Three Greeting:

Team Four Greeting:

Then came the big Presentation on December 11th, 2024 and this group did an amazing job with ideas for the Town of Bergenfield promoting the Bergenfield Museum, Coopers Pond Park and the South Church’s Historic Cemetery. Each Team tried to top one another.

The whole idea of the Bergenfield Project was not just to promote the museums, parks and historic churches but to create Destination Marketing Project to promote the Town of Bergenfield as a place to visit for both domestic and foreign tourism. This is the project that promotes that vision:

The Bergenfield Team website for Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc:

https://bergeccoparcconsultinginc4.wordpress.com/

The presentation on the Bergenfield Museum

The day of the presentation the students had to be in professional dress with men expected to be in Jacket and tie or a suit and the ladies in blouses, slacks, suits and dresses. We presented this project to the Board and members of the Bergenfield Museum and to the Communications director of Bergenfield, NJ, which really gave the students a stamp of approval.

Video of the Presentation:

Part One:

Part Two:

PowerPoint of the Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VUbI7TwxcOVTjXf-Ra-7GbC7fErs0-VU2JSHVMDX9rc/edit?usp=sharing

I thought the commercials the students came up with were very clever.

The Commercials of the Bergenfield Museum:

Team One:

Team Two:

Team Three:

Team Four:

The Children’s Walking Tour of the Bergenfield Museum:

Team One:

Team Two:

Team Three:

Team Four:

The Coopers Pond Walking Tour:

Coopers Pond Park sits between the Bergenfield Museum and the South Church and is one of the most beautiful parks and underrated parks in Bergen County. The students were tasked with creating a Walking Tour of the park.

The beauty of Coopers Pond Park in Bergenfield, NJ during the Christmas Holiday season.

Team One:

Commercial One:

Commercial Two:

Team Two:

Team Three:

Team Four:

The Historic Graveyard Tour of the South Church:

The South Church Cemetery is one of the oldest and historic cemeteries in Bergen County and home to the Demarest family plot, one of the most prominent families in Bergen County. The students were tasked with creating a short Walking Tour video promotion for the project to promote the South Church for tourism.

Team One:

Commercial Two:

Team Two:

Team Three:

Team Four:

Some of the Student Consultants also for extra credit created a Halloween Walk for the Church.

The Corporate Picture at the end of the Presentation:

The Executive Team of the Bergenfield Museum project

Another excellent Project from the Student Consultants of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.-Paramus Benhke/Bergenfield Team

I couldn’t have been more proud of a group of students who created an excellent project!

Day Three Hundred Twenty-Nine: Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Promoting Bergen County Farms: Visiting Old Schraalenburgh Farm and Farm Stand in Closter, NJ” December 12th, 2024

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

Contact Us

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:

https://www.abramdemareehomestead.org/the-farm

https://www.facebook.com/abramdemareehome/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46367-d5269898-Reviews-The_Farm_Stand-Closter_New_Jersey.html?m=69573

My review on LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com:

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

https://www.pompiliospizzeria.com/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46923-d4643410-Reviews-Pompilio_s_Pizzeria_Restaurant-Westwood_New_Jersey.html?m=69573

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:

https://bergeccoparcconsultingfirmcom.wordpress.com/

The Presentation of “Visiting the Farms of Bergen County”:

The presentation is done in various languages: English, Spanish, Arabic, Albanian, Korean, and Persian.

The PowerPoint Presentation for the Presentation:

The Farm Commercial for Team One:

See PowerPoint Presentation

The Farm Commercial for Team Two:

https://www.youtubeeducation.com/watch?v=VKzaIIcvNWo

The Farm Commercial for Team Three:

See PowerPoint Presentation

The Farm Commercial for Team Four:

See PowerPoint Presentation

The Holiday Dinner Project (Quiz Four):

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

The farm is a lot of fun any time of the year.

Day Three Hundred and Thirty Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents: “It’s Razzling in Ramsey, NJ-Be a Tourist in your Own Town” December 11th, 2024

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

Contact Us

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.

Anthony Franco’s Pizzeria at 128 East Main Street

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46762-d4918283-Reviews-Anthony_Francos_Pizza-Ramsey_New_Jersey.html?m=69573

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 Museum at 159 Island Road

https://www.ramseyhistorical.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westervelt%E2%80%93Ackerson_House

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46762-d20323524-Reviews-The_Old_Stone_House_Ramsey_Historical_Society-Ramsey_New_Jersey.html

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

https://visitingamuseum.com/tag/the-old-stone-house-ramsey-nj/

The front of the Old Stone House Museum

The back of the house and its grounds

The historic barn and the fall foliage

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 PowerPoint of the Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1r7vMi-pDMDRtvKnh_FAyO1Xl4CLfsITEr13sAfMoo5U/edit?usp=gmail

The Video of the Presentation on the Paramus, NJ:

The Welcome and the Historical Team presentation:

The Introduction and the Historical Team

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 History of Ramsey video:

https://www.youtubeeducation.com/watch?v=wt8vrB5Ks_o

The Mr. Pumpkin Event:

https://www.youtubeeducation.com/watch?v=qbs2jhkrNWE

Tour of the Old Stone House:

https://www.youtubeeducation.com/watch?v=ndwsF047eUQ

The Special Events presentation:

The Special Events Team

The Marketing Team presentation:

The Marketing Team

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:

https://www.itsrazzlinginramsey.com/post/demetre-gratiashvili-reflects-on-leading-the-it-s-razzling-in-ramsey-initiative

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 link to the Project on Quiz Four:

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.

Day Three Hundred and Four Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents: “The Bergen 250-Visiting The Garretson Forge & Farm in Fair Lawn, NJ” April 24th, 2024

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

Contact Us

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”:

https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/40413

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:

https://wordpress.com/post/visitingamuseum.com/1448

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.

The Garretson Forge & Farm:

https://www.garretsonfarm.org

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46430-d12854166-Reviews-Garretson_Forge_Farm-Fair_Lawn_New_Jersey.html

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

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 twilight
Tour 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:

https://www.bellavitaitalianrestaurant.com

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46430-d1114260-Reviews-Bella_Vita_Italian_Restaurant-Fair_Lawn_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

Dining together after the tour:

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.

The Bergen 250 Program:

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.

PowerPoints:

Team One:

Team Two:

Team Three:

Commercials:

Team One:

Team Two:

The Promotional Tour Video

The Children’s Walking Tour Video

Team Three:

Promotional Tour

The Children’s Walking Tour Video:

The full Presentation of the student consultant’s work on The Garretson Forge & Farm:

The complete video of the Presentation.

The new website for “Bergen 250″: The Garretson Forge & Farm”:

https://tfischer90.wixsite.com/bergecco-parc-consul

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!

Great Work!

Day Three Hundred and Three Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Dining at the Bergen Room-The Ultimate Dining Experience”-Bergen Community College Campus April 24th, 2024

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Executive Team picture in the Bergen Room on the Bergen Community College campus for the project “Dining at the Bergen Room: the Ultimate Dining Experience” on April 24th, 2024.

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

Contact Us

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.

Two semesters ago we created the project “It’s Cultural on Campus-Bergen Community College” publicizing the Gallery Bergen, The Ciccone Theater and the Bergen Room Bistro to the outside community. It was a ‘Digital Campaign’ to bring people to the Bergen Community College campus from all over Bergen County, NJ to enjoy all the wonderful things to do and see on our campus. The project was a huge success and all the Professors and Departments involved really enjoyed the Presentations (See Day Two Hundred and Sixty-Six):

Day Two Hundred and Sixty-Six: “It’s Cultural on Campus”:

https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/32922

One of my counterparts on campus loved the campaign and ‘hired’ (asked me) to expand the project for a “Digital Campaign” for the Bergen Room and expand the project with all new menus, commercials and create a special Themed Dinner for the student dining room. This resulted in “Dining in the Bergen Room”:

The Project Idea:

I got Professor Drakeford and Professor/Chef Morrisey involved in the project and we worked together to see the best ways to promote the success of the Culinary Program’s Student Run Dining Room.

I created the Teams two weeks before the Spring Break and got them started on their project. When we returned from the Spring Break, we arranged for the class to dine in the Bergen Room. Chef Morrisey and his Team of Culinary Students created a special menu for us when the Bergen Room was closed and the students got feast on a four course meal courtesy of the Culinary Arts Department.

Having lunch with my students at the Bergen Room on the Bergen Community College Campus in Paramus, NJ:

My TripAdvisor reviews on the Bergen Room:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46712-d12308869-Reviews-The_Bergen_Room_Bistro-Paramus_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

The menu that afternoon:

We started the Testing Menu with a Pumpkin Carrot Ginger Soup.

Then we had the second course with a Toasted Green Salad with a light Cream Dressing.

The main course was a Chicken in a Creamy Peppercorn Sauce, Baked Pasta and Roasted Brussel Spouts.

The meal was completed with a Cream Cheesecake that tasted more like a cream cake and topped with Fresh Strawberries.

All the Teams got to dine with one another and get to know each member in a less formal setting.

This meal got the students to know their product better and look around the Bergen Room and see how they could take this student run dining room and transform it to a special themed event that would dazzle myself and the other Professors and bring in the paying public. Here are some of their ideas:

Along the way, I had various speakers come in to talk to the students. Professor Tim Blunk from the Art Department and the Curator for Gallery Bergen, our on campus Art Gallery came in to talk to the students about the artists that are available on campus and the number of students on campus who are looking for projects for their portfolios. He also discussed some of the happenings at Gallery Bergen.

Professor Jim Bumgarner, the head of our Theater Department, came in to talk to the students on the student singers, actors and dancers that study at the college. He discussed upcoming shows and theater events planned for the future. He added too that there are a lot of students looking to add to their resumes on projects like this.

Our last in house field trip was to the Horticultural Department and to the Greenhouses in Ender Hall. Dr. Steven Fischer, who is head of the Holocultural Program, gave us a tour and talk on the growing seasons, the plants that are grown and available in the greenhouses, the arrangements that are created for the Bergen Room Bistro.

The tour of Greenhouses on our last inhouse field trip with Dr. Fischer explaining the greenhouses.

Asking questions about the floral arrangements used for the Bergen Room.

Discussion of the grounds of the Horticulture Department grounds.

It was a good tour and opened the students eyes on how events were decorated and where the flowers came from and how they were grown. The students were creating their centerpieces for their theme dinners and I wanted them to see where they would get the flowers from.

My President and SVP of Operations on the field trip to the Greenhouses.

We finished our last Board meeting the week before the Presentation and then the Executive Team had a week to make the adjustments. We would be presenting the Project in the Bergen Room Bistro on April 24th, 2024.

The new Corporate website for the Bergen Room Team:

https://tbozoluer.wixsite.com/ultimatedining

The Presentation Day had some hiccups along the way but overall it was a great Presentation. I was so proud of the students. Each of the competing Teams set up for extra credit a table in the Bergen Room on how their Dining Experience would be set for the evening of their meal. I have to say that the Teams did a nice job with the decorations and all received extra credit for their place settings. There was a lot of creativity in this class.

The were the three Team tables on how they would be set for their ideas for the Student Fundraiser.

Team One’s Display Table

Team Two’s Display table (The Wining Team)

Team Three’s Display Table

The Three Teams then started their Presentations to Chef Morrisey and his student staff, invited guests and friends of the students who came to see the Student Consultants ideas. What creativity! Each team had to present their theme, their menus, music for the event, artwork, floral arrangements and Social Media campaigns. It was an afternoon of a lot of creativity and though that went into each Teams ideas.

Here are their Commercials promoting the Bergen Room:

Team One:

Team Two:

Team Three:

Here are their Presentations from the afternoon. Each Team had to ‘pitch’ their ideas to the Culinary Team.

Team One:

Team Two:

Team Three:

The Teams competed for the prize being the most creative and effective project to sell the Bergen Room Bistro to the outside community.

Team Three even created for extra credit a AI version of visiting the Bergen Room.

After the Team conclusion, it was time for questions and answers. The point of the whole project was to get the students ready for a career in business and marketing and there were questions of why the project was taken so seriously. The answer I had for one parent was that you want your son or daughter to get a good job out of college? It is better they get their lumps here than on a new job. They will be more prepared for the workforce.

One parent did compliment me in that his son was so excited about the project and it really showcased his son’s talents in filming and graphics. That was nice to hear that students are excited about their work. I know that these are the students that will get good jobs out of college and be prepared for Corporate expectations.

I couldn’t more proud of a group of students that banded together to showcase this wonderfully run student dining room.

Have you been there yet?

I took pictures with my Executive Team before the Presentation. I very proudly wore my Alumni Chef’s Jacket from when I graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1998. I don’t think it had been out of the dry cleaning plastic since that time.

Professor/Chef/CEO Justin Watrel with SVP of Operations Ayesha Zulfiqar and President Tugay Bera Bozogluer.

Professor Justin Watrel with the winning Team Project from Team Two. I was very impressed with their work. The Team was lead by Vice-President Mauricio Benitez and Team Leader Dennis Shkembi.

My group picture with Team Three lead by Vice-President Taner Ender and Team Leaders Kane Cheng.

Our Corporate picture for the Bergen Room Team at the end of the Presentation.

I am so proud of my students each semester. I like knowing I am training the next group of Executives for their future.

Day Two Hundred and Eighty-Nine: Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents: “Go Bulldogs!: Spring Open House 2024” December 6th, 2023

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

Contact Us

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.

They are now prepared for the real world.

The PowerPoint Presentation:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFy-P-dzDA/2PqVf2Z6oDs1Zp-EC9JjFw/view

The Presentation:

Part of the Presentation by the Talent Team

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Corporate picture:

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Paramus Team-Bulldog Open House 2023.

The Corporate website for Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. that they created for this project:

https://bergeccoparcconsul.wixsite.com/my-site

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.

Introduction to Business Quiz Four:

The Holiday Party Presentation:

The Introduction to the “Holiday Party’ project.

The President and Senior Vice-President of Operations in their corporate holiday greeting.

The Entertainment Team’s Holiday Presentation.

The Entertainment Team’s Holiday greeting.

The Talent Team’s Holiday Presentation.

The Talent Team’s Holiday Greeting

The Marketing Team’s Holiday Presentation.

The Marketing Team’s Holiday Greeting

The Culinary Team’s Holiday Presentation.

The Culinary Team’s Holiday greeting.

The Holiday ideas were excellent and the Corporate Christmas Party was a huge success!

Day Two Hundred and Ninety: Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents: “The Bergen 250-Visiting the Bergen County Historical Society in River Edge, NJ” December 7th, 2023

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

Contact Us

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 recently been at a series of special events at the Bergen County Historical Society both for Christmas in 2022 and for more recent events as the Harvest Festival and a walking tour of the property in 2023. Although the events were interesting and the Christmas event with the period live music and the Pub set up in the Christie House, the attendance seemed rather low. 

The Bergen County Historical Society:

https://www.bergencountyhistory.org/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46776-d7603554-Reviews-Historic_New_Bridge_Landing-River_Edge_New_Jersey.html

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

https://wordpress.com/post/visitingamuseum.com/531

When I Googled the Historical Society, their social media and digital marketing were not as prominent as they should be either in describing their events or with a series of current pictures or videos. Their digital footprint needed some work. Also, their events never changed year after year. They had the exact same events with the same theme for each season. 

This I could see was a problem as people want to have different experiences when they visit a place. These sites do not have to alter the events but do need to update and ‘freshen up’ their offerings with a different twist to keep people coming. Others wise, it it the same thing year after year. Also, they were not marketing the site for people outside of Bergen County let alone for foreign tourism. This is where the idea for “Tourism for the Bergen County Historical Society” project for Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. came into creation.

The Project “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Tourism at the Bergen County Historical Society”:

As a member of the Bergen County Historical Society for about five years I had to say the Society does have a tendency to run the same events over and over again and the attendance, especially when it came time for the weather, could really damper the attendance since most events were held outdoors. Plus they attracted the same crowd of older patrons and needed a new clientele to attend to give a fresh perspective to these events.

This is where I wanted to challenge both the students to look at the site from the idea of what would bring them to the Bergen County Historical Society and how the Society could look at making updates to bring that younger, family friendly crowd who was interested in the history of Bergen County but still wanted to have a good time and be engaged by the event. That can be a delicate balancing act in the age of social media and cellphone distraction.

It took some convincing from both sides to get this project off the ground. The Society kept thinking we were a real consulting firm and were hesitant to do the project. The none of my students had ever been to the Bergen County Historical Society let alone want to go there. The schools in Bergen County no longer even studied American history the way we did when I was in junior high or high school nor did they take the field trips to Trenton or Washington DC that we did back in the 1970’s. This is when I knew this would be a learning experience for both parties.

The goal was to bring more tourists both domestic and international to the Bergen County Historical Society with a series of new events for both Halloween and Spring/Easter that were both inclusive and family friendly that had a contemporary but historical twist to them. I asked the students to look at the history of both holidays and what the meaning of the Fall festivals and Spring Festivals meant to people through the ages. The third event the students had to create was a fundraiser for the Society that would raise $25,000 to raise money for the new museum on the Society’s property. I saw some shocked looks on the students faces but I knew they could do it.

There were some major challenges logistics wise for the project as well. I had to arrange a visit to the site because the students would never go out on their own to see it, plus the site was not open on a Thursday night so that would take some coordination. Also, being the Fall semester we always worried about the problem with the weather and the night of the tour it threatened to rain (it didn’t Thank God). Lastly, I only had four weeks to put this project together and get it presented to the Historical Society before I had to give the final exam and post grades by the end of the semester. This on top of all the projects and papers I myself had to do for Graduate school gave me many stressful nights. Somehow, we pulled it all off to a huge success.

The week after I presented the project to the students with a few groans, we were off the next Thursday night to a mandatory (and I mean mandatory!) field trip to the Bergen County Historical Society in River Edge, NJ to see all the buildings and learn about the history of the site and the importance of it during the Revolutionary War. The time change after Halloween meant we would be having the tour in the dark with not a lot of light to shine the way.

Parking at the site needed to worked on as well as their parking lot was hard to maneuver if you did not know the area and had some sharp turns to get to when parking your car. Still I got all the students there and basically on time (except one) and we got the tour underway with the former and current Presidents of the Society. I could not believe how well it worked out for everyone.

First I had to make sure that everyone was there the night of the tour which was difficult because people were coming from work and the traffic being what is was at 6:30pm at night but again everyone was ready to go. We started at the Campbell-Christie House, which was used as the pub for the Christmas event I had been at the year earlier. It had also been used as the gathering place for the tree lighting ceremony when COVID hit in Christmas 2020.

Starting our class tour of the Bergen County Historical Society at the Campbell-Christi House

Starting the tour at twilight. It was really dark on the Bergen County Historical Society site.

Entering the Campbell-Christie House for the tour.

The Campbell-Christie House during the day.

We toured the house and talked about its history and how it was moved to this location to save it from demolishment. Also the uses of the house in different programs.

We then moved onto the Demarest House which is the next house over. The home is much smaller but its significance in Bergen County history is the same as the Campbell-Christie. This type of Dutch style architecture is unique to this part the country where the Dutch had to adapt to weather conditions and building materials that could be found.

The Demarest House during the day.

Its ownership to one of the most prominent families gave it even more importance. We were able to see the loft space and how the family lived on a daily basis in the two rooms.

Our class touring the Steuben House toward the end of the tour.

Then it was on to the Steuben House which was the home of the Zabriskie family but given to General Steuben by the patriots for his assistance during the Revolutionary War. This is the main house that most activities take place in including lectures and musical performances. In each of the homes,.

Ex-President of the Society Deborah Powell lead the students on a very engaging tour of the Steuben House. It has an interesting and intriguing past.

The two Presidents of the Society who joined us told me later how impressed they were that the students were so engaged in the conversation and wanted to learn so much about the site. For all of my students this was the first time any of them had been to the Bergen County Historical Society, so it was a treat for them as well. I could see that they all learned so much from ‘being in the field’.

My student consultants from Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. with former President Deborah Powell in our group shot at the main room at the Steuben House. It was at the end of the tour.

The Steuben House during the day.

After the tour was over and the questions were answered, our group left for dinner. I can always tell the success of these projects when we all have dinner together. I chose a pizzeria around the corner from the Historical Society that I had never been to before but plan on returning to, Napolimania at 450 Hackensack Avenue in the Home Depot mall. It had the perfect amount of space for our group of 30 students, who were both hungry and cold. Both the pizza and the pizzeria were wonderful and we had such a good time.

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. student consultants enjoying dinner.

Dinner at Napolimania Pizzeria for dinner after the tour.

Napolimania at 450 Hackensack Avenue in Hackensack, NJ TripAdvisor review:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46480-d26832109-Reviews-Napolimania_Pizzeria-Hackensack_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

I think one of the most important aspects about this project is that the Team “breaks bread” with each other (have a business meal). It is one of the biggest parts of Team Building and a way for strangers to get to know one another. I have seen more friendships formed over these meals and a transition of how the students treat this project. Most of them start taking it more seriously and then the work begins. By the way, the pizza was excellent that night and I highly recommend the restaurant for the food and service.

The next week, I started to give more time in the classroom for the students to work on their project as it was crunch time and they only had three weeks to complete it and present it to me. This is when the stress levels of the Teams start because then you see the people who will really work and the ones that put in the minimum and trust me, they make their feelings known. I had my share of headaches before this presentation but for the other 95% of the class, I saw some major transformations in the students, their attitudes towards the project and a lot of creativity.

We had the presentation in the fifth floor conference room at the Lyndhurst campus of Bergen Community College and this is only the second time I have used this room but it is the best one to present the project in.

The Presentation welcome:

CEO Watrel’s welcome

President Beqo welcome:

President Sorak Beqo opening the program for “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Tourism at the Bergen County Historical Society” on the night of December 7th, 2023.

The Executive welcome and headquarters plan.

Our honored guests that night were the President of the Bergen County Historical Society, the former President of the Society and one of the Board members. I would have hoped we would have had a better turn out from the Society but I understood that it was the holiday season and everyone had so many commitments plus it was later in the evening and down in Lyndhurst. Still, it was nice to have the ladies attend for feedback on the Presentation.

Each group gave their Presentation along with creating two commercials, one promoting their events on the Society grounds and then one promoting the Society for tourism.

Team One Presentation:

Team One presenting their ideas for events and fundraising at the Bergen County Historical Society.

Team One presenting their ideas to raise money for the new museum.

Team One’s Presentation on YouTube.

Team Two Presentation:

Team Two pitching their ideas for the Bergen County Historical Society.

The ideas for fundraising for the new Museum at the Bergen County Historical Society.

The extra credit project that Team Two created was one of the reasons they won the contest.

Team Two Presentation on YouTube.

Team Three Presentation:

Team Three making their pitch for new events at the Bergen County Historical Society. They gave one of the most professional presentations that I had seen in a long time.

Team Three making their pitch on their ideas for fundraising for the new Museum.

Team Three Presentation on YouTube

Closing Remarks on YouTube:

Being only given four weeks to pull this project off, the student consultants did an excellent job on this project. The projects were creative, inventive and showed that they had studied and visited the historical site more than once. They used all the buildings on the property for different events coming up with new ideas on old events and creating new ones.

I liked the ideas of the Easter Egg hunts and Bunny visits as well as how to approach Easter as a secular event taking its Pagan roots and putting a new twist on it. For Halloween, the students incorporated old ideas such as apple bobbing and hayrides around the property with utilizing the historic homes as haunted houses. The winning group even used a haunted maze and a petting zoo to the mix.

For the museum fundraiser, the student consultants had some creative ideas to raise money for the museum. One group used a food truck event, another used a full day event and for their extra credit event was a “Revolutionary Dance” that I thought was really interesting. It always amazes me the way that students give such a fresh perspective to a project. I could tell that the Board members of the Society were blown away by the ideas that the students came up with to bring more people to the site.

After the Q & A for the project, we took our Corporate shot for Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. headquarters. I was impressed with what a sharp group we made.

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Corporate shot-Lyndhurst “Tourism at Bergen County Historical Society” Team December 2023.

The PowerPoint Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ewDUcxaJMxYR-jVWFDcMBagv2rIquHme/edit?slide=id.p1#slide=id.p1

The Corporate Website for the “Tourism at Bergen County Historical Society” Lyndhurst Team:

https://bergeccoparchistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/

The holiday project:

All three Teams were given the task by one of the founding members of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. to create ideas for the Corporate Christmas Party. The students were tasked with creating a menu with one appetizer, a main dish and a dessert with a signature drink and then had to create a corporate message in both English and Spanish. It is always fun to see the results on this:

President Beqo’s message to corporate:

The Team Presentations of Invitations, Menus and Holiday Wishes:

The students did an excellent job promoting the Bergen County Historical Society.