After they ran a successful convenience store and gift packaging business on campus last year, the administration knew they had drive and organizational skills.
The main problem with the snack bar last year was that the already-busy kitchen services staff was running it, and it wasn't open often enough to serve the needs of the students at the private boarding school.
"Now, we run everything," said Matt Swift, 19. The snack bar is open daily, and the busiest shift is after study hall, from 9:30 p.m. until 10:15 p.m.
The three students got the project off the ground with their start-up capital, a mere $5,000. The money was applied to purchasing some new equipment (including a milkshake machine), stocking the snack bar and opening accounts with food purveyors, Pepsi, and different candy companies.
"We simplified the menu. Before, they had a lot of different things that not many people bought, but we went down to eight to 10 staple items, things like burgers and cheeseburgers," said Mr. Swift.
Menu items include a cheeseburger with fries for $6.50, hamburgers, chicken fingers, popcorn chicken, jalapeno poppers, steak and cheese sandwiches, onion rings, mozzarella sticks, and milkshakes for $2.50.
The snack bar employs four professional cooks and four students. The students are paid out of the snack bar's profits, and the dining hall pays the chefs and provides them with benefits.
The snack bar is an alternative to eating in the collegiate-style dining room. Students can charge food to their school debit account, pay cash or even write a check.
"We've learned more from this than we ever have in a classroom. We've had to adapt. I don't think any of us thought we'd end up bosses to four people between 26 and 40 years old," said Mr. Swift.
The young men aren't sure what drives them to want to take care of the day-to-day tasks of running the business, such as being at the bar at 7 a.m. to receive the twice-weekly food delivery. They recalled times last year when they'd be standing in the pouring rain during their free period waiting for the soda truck to come. "I have no idea where it comes from, but we all want to be that heavily involved. We just have a blast," said Mr. Swift.
"We're at an all-boys school, we're in the country, we can't really go anywhere," added Mr. Swift of the motivation. "We have a lot of free time at this school. I'd rather be productive and working with that time instead of watching movies and playing video games."
"There's something about the student-student transaction that we love," he added. "I had my group of friends before the business started and now, I know everyone on campus, which is great."
The trio has gotten a lot of help from the school's business department, business manager and the headmaster, Chisholm S. Chandler. They've learned how to market their business, manage a staff, take inventory, make orders, receive deliveries, file taxes and make business projections using Quicken software.
"It's quite rare for private schools to have an entrepreneurial program. It would be a program on accounting, how to take inventory, how to work numbers," said Mr. Katzenberg.
"Imagine graduating from high school knowing how to balance your checkbook, how to pay your taxes, having experience with management. We're trying to take this from us having fun running a company to offering each student a business opportunity that they can get credit for," said Mr. Swift.
"We just want all students to have the same great experience we've had. It's been life-transforming, without sounding bold," said Mr. Logothetis.
But all this sounds like a lot of work in addition to shouldering a full course load at a competitive prep school. "It's not to say we didn't have problems with that in the beginning, there were times when all of our grades dipped and the school said, 'Get your grades up or we're going to have issues with this,'" said Mr. Logothetis.
And Mr. Swift remembers the headmaster saying, "You are here for education. As much as I love this program, I have no problem cutting it if it means your grades."
In the end, all three ended up having higher GPAs because they wanted to continue running Sarum. "The school has never let us forget that we are here for academics," said Mr. Swift.
They also still make time for certain extracurricular activities. Mr. Katzenberg and Mr. Swift sing in the gospel choir, and all are involved with the school newspaper and community service pursuits.
Mr. Katzenberg and Mr. Logothetis have been friends for a long time; they were roommates at Washington's Rumsey Hall School. They met Mr. Swift their first year at Salisbury School. Mr. Swift comes from Charlottesville, Va. Mr. Katzenberg's hometown is Roxbury, and Mr. Logothetis, the most far-flung member of the group, hails from Athens, Greece.
The three have definite business aspirations. "In some ways, we've learned so much from the real experience that business school is not something that we're jumping at," said Mr. Swift, who has aspirations in retail and the Internet. "I know I'd rather get right out of college and start my own company because this process," he said, gesturing around him, "is so much fun."
Though they have had small disagreements about how to run Sarum, they take advice from some of the business idols they've had the chance to meet.
Melvin and Ellen Gordon, the couple that runs Tootsie Roll Industries, gave them one major piece of advice: "As partners, if you have a serious disagreement about something, don't do it, drop it and move on to the next-that's how you keep the partnership alive," recalled Mr. Swift.
One thing they do agree on is that they keep none of the profits from Sarum. Instead, they use the money to grow their business and donate the rest to charity. Tsunami relief, the Red Cross, the Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative, and the American Cancer Society have been beneficiaries of their generosity, as well as many of Salisbury School's sports teams.
They also treated the entire Salisbury School community to dinner last year when they hosted the school's first Lobster Fest. "We ordered over 300 lobsters and had a huge bonfire. Every student got a lobster and a T-shirt, and the students played volleyball and basketball. It was the first time the Salisbury community had done that before," said Mr. Swift.
They've also dealt with some animosity and envy from other students on campus. Students have "made jokes that aren't funny about us pocketing the money instead of donating it," said Mr. Logothetis.
"Yeah," agreed Mr. Katzenberg, who's gotten snide comments such as "New tie, Mike?" implying that he's buying himself things with the profits from the snack bar.
After some taunting, they went to the headmaster, who said, according to Mr. Swift, "Well, you put yourself in the spotlight by doing this on campus so you have to suck it up, it comes with the territory."
"That's one of the lessons we've learned. It's brought about some criticism, but we've learned to get over it pretty quickly," added Mr. Swift.
There are plans to expand their business with special Monday Night Football events and Chili Night, and the young men also want to get into cold cuts and specialty coffee in the months to come. They recently had a student band play on the deck for fun and to draw in customers.
Another of their projects involves decorating the snack bar and replacing the ping-pong table that resides next to two pool tables, foosball and air hockey games. "We are getting ready to decorate the place like an old sports club," said Mr. Swift. They plan to put up old crew oars and hang Salisbury School athletic photographs from the 20s through 50s.
There are several TVs and one large flat screen unit, plus a movie theater downstairs, in the student center that houses the snack bar. The theater features seating for about 25, and an even larger flat screen television. That is where the young men want to host Monday Night Football and movie nights where they'll serve popcorn and candy.
They are also inviting eminent businesspeople to do a speaker series, and showing business documentaries such as, "Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room," to spark students' interest in business.
"The first night we were open, we pulled through about 320 people in under an hour," said Mr. Swift. That means every student plus many staff members, in the school that educates just under 300 young men.
"They had to extend [room] check in because we didn't want to turn anyone away for food," Mr. Swift recalled. "It was our big test. The headmaster was here the whole time watching every aspect of it go on. But it was a success. We couldn't have been happier."
Luke Esselen is the junior who will take over Sarum next year when the three entrepreneurs graduate. They handpicked Mr. Esselen for his interest and work ethic. "He does everything the other students do, while learning all the other aspects of the business," said Mr. Swift.
To drum up new business and raise awareness of their enterprise, they presented each parent with a promotional gift. Silver cases were filled with maroon M&Ms, each printed with a tiny "Sarum Snacks" logo. They also created party favors for the school trustees meeting in Manhattan.
"That's the kind of thing that the headmaster really likes, doing these promotional things is how we got the board and trustees on our side. Since then, the school has given us their unwavering support," said Mr. Swift.
Every year, the chairman of the board of Salisbury School makes a speech, and the highlight of the speech this year was the entrepreneurship program started from Sarum Snacks. Mr. Swift noted that, traditionally, Salisbury School students become either great athletes or great businessmen, and that the school is trying to nurture the second group with its new program.
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