Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Business done with class

What happens when you tell a group of middle schoolers to go start their own enterprise? A sound lesson in entrepreneurship.

By Christina Rexrode
Published March 24, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Joseph Garnett, JR.] Seminole Middle School teacher Ann Marie Weather, left, completes a survey as Water Works' Terryelle Cohens, Carly Young and Shelby Simpson sell her a bottle of water. The company was created by students of Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School. [Times photo: Joseph Garnett, JR.] Teacher Sara Carroll is one sponsor of the Water Works program at her school.

Terryelle Cohens is 13 years old, and she throws around phrases like "board of directors" and "seed money" as if she's been doing it all her life.

She's the product of a teacher who saw the value of imparting economics lessons to middle schoolers, even if the subject doesn't merit its own section on the FCAT.

On Thursday evening, the Pinellas school district held an expo of student businesses and honored the teachers who helped nurture them. Think of it as a science fair of supply and demand, a hands-on way to teach the next generation about profits and loss.

The "company" that Terryelle helps run is called Water Works. About 80 students at Largo's Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School are involved with the business, which sells bottled water at the school. Sara Carroll, a reading teacher there, has her students create a different business enterprise each year. She co-sponsors Water Works with three other teachers.

The middle schoolers decided to sell bottled water, with Water Works labels, after the school frowned on their idea to sell candy. Everyone drinks water, the kids reasoned.

Since the beginning of the school year, they've learned how to start a business, and also how to keep it afloat.

Anyone who wanted to be on the board of directors wrote a letter explaining why, and the teachers picked the three officers: a president, vice president and secretary/treasurer. There's a lesson here for the Fortune 500, where most boards are elected by far more obscure methods.

To get started, the students had to write a loan proposal and contingency plan. (If Water Works failed, they decided, they'd pay back the loan with sweat equity - by holding a car wash.)

Students sign up to sell water at 75 cents per bottle every Wednesday. They used to sell only before and after school but asked the principal for permission to sell between classes because they saw the chance to turn a bigger profit.

They've just started passing out surveys seeking feedback. (Sample questions: "Was the water cold?" "Was there a 'Water Works' label placed neatly on the bottle?")

As Water Works' vice president, Carly Young has guided the company past a few missteps. For a while, some sixth-graders were putting the labels on incorrectly, and others were too shy to be effective salespeople.

"If you were an intern," said Carly, a 13-year-old seventh-grader, "I'd be checking what you were doing and making sure you were learning."

By the end of the school year, the middle schoolers think that Water Works will net several hundred dollars. They'll put aside a portion as seed money for next year's students. But they're not sure about what's left. Last year's company donated most of it to the SPCA - and spent the rest on a pizza party.

Christina Rexrode can be reached at crexrode@sptimes.com">href="mailto:crexrode@sptimes.com" mce_href="mailto:crexrode@sptimes.com">crexrode@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8318.

[Last modified March 23, 2007, 23:18:08]