At Lansdowne High School, T-shirts aren't just something to wear. They're academic credit -- and a thriving business.
The 30 students enrolled in teacher Robert Hooey's "Teen Enterprises" course spend their class time learning how to run graphic arts mini-factories, and the subject matter ranges from silk screening to pleasing customers.
"I think it's really neat, and it's a good experience to go into the working world," said sophomore Amy Nield, 16. "It's not just learning how to use the color screen and all, it's learning entrepreneurship." That means billing, answering customers' phone calls and using the computer.
The students make and sell items such as shirts, floral arrangements, buttons, signs and key chains. Their customers include Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's office, the Baltimore 4-H Club and other local organizations and government agencies.
"It feels like I'm running my own business," said Tom Kohlhaus, a 16-year-old sophomore.
At $5.50 each, the custom T-shirts are hot sellers -- more than 3,000 have been shipped since September. The money from the shirts goes back into buying equipment and supplies, Mr. Hooey said.
He developed the teen business concept during 20 years of work with youth groups and brought the idea for the class with him to Lansdowne last year.
The customers seem to be happy. "They're great," said William Clark, a Baltimore 4-H official who says his group has ordered thousands of T-shirts for campers and state fair-goers. "They do all of our work, because it's a high-quality shirt. They have a four-color printing operation, and it's youth operated -- and that's key. "
With a computer drawing program or hand sketch, students first make a logo for a T-shirt under Mr. Hooey's guidance. From the logo, they create the screen used to transfer the image to the shirt.
In their basement shop, extension cords, lights and heaters are suspended from the ceiling, and art supplies line the walls.
James Brand, another class member, demonstrated the technique, running a "squeegee" dipped in paint over the screen, which sits in a frame on the T-shirt.
The paint penetrates the logo cut into the screen, then a heater dries the paint so the colors won't smudge. When the shirt is dry, students addadditional colors and heat the shirts again. Each shirt takes about five minutes.
On Monday, the young entrepreneurs entertained a group of very interested visitors -- 15 students on a two-week visit from St. Petersburg, Russia, who made T-shirts to take back home. The Russians, here as part of a cultural exchange program, stayed in the homes of teachers and other Lansdowne area residents. Many had studied English for several years, and with their American-looking jeans, boots, jewelry and haircuts, it was hard to tell who was visiting whom.
"Put it at an angle like this," James Brand told 12-year-old Michael Nazarov, who said in accented English -- filled with smiles to compensate for words he did not know -- that he wanted to make a T-shirt for his father.
"I enjoyed it a lot," Tom Kohlhaus said of the visit, "because I guess they don't have that kind of thing over in Russia, and it felt kind of good to show them how to do it."
He said that when the young Russians asked questions, they understood his answers well. "You just had to talk slow to them and speak proper English," he said.
The Russian students made white, extra-large T-shirts that said "Lansdowne High School" in an arc across the top and "St. Petersburg, Russia" in an arc below. In the middle was the message "Good Will Tour '95" in navy blue.
When Paul Ivanov, 15, was done with his T-shirt, he touched the letters to make sure the paint was dry. "It's wonderful. It will be a souvenir," he said.