Newport High School student starts her own business in effort to pay for college

A Newport High School student with a passion for baking had a hard time finding work to pay for college, so she took matters into her own hands.

Rachel Lingerbrink started her own online bakery company, Shine Bakery, which sells baked goods online for delivery or pickup in Bellevue.

“They order online and I either hand deliver it or they can pick it up,” Lingerbrink tells KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “We’re working on shipments to other states and stuff but as of now its local delivery and pickup.”

Lingerbrink says she hatched the idea in a culinary class at her school.

“At my school, we have a culinary program that has a business management section in it and we get to take one restaurant idea to the state competition,” says Lingerbrink. “We did not take my idea but I decided that I really liked the whole format of the project and everything so I decided to keep rolling with it.”

Lingerbrink launched the website, figured out her licensing and insurance, and trades babysitting hours for time to work in a commercial kitchen.

Eventually she hopes her online delivery business can expand to include a storefront. But in the meantime, she plans to use her profits to pay for classes at Bellevue College.

She says her family has always encouraged her to follow her dream, so she’s going for it, and has a good attitude about what the experience will mean even if it doesn’t turn into a huge moneymaker.

“If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out,” she says. “It will be a good learning experience either way and then once I go to college and do get a business degree or some sort of more information about business once I go to college, then that will get me even farther.”