Ten-year-old Aspen Lenning of Plaza was trying to sell candy and mystery bags filled with goodies such as candy, erasers and pencils, but she hadn't expanded her customer base.
Barry Striegel, director of the University of North Dakota's Youth Entrepreneurship Education Project, had some suggestions. Maybe she could join forces with another business in the school and put up fliers advertising their business. She should go out and get her customers, he said.
"They aren't going to come to you," he said, demonstrating salesmanship in an exaggerated fashion.
Aspen giggled, but what Striegel was teaching the 20 9- to 13-year-olds enrolled in an entrepeneurship class held at New Town Middle School, was serious business.
"There is no free lunch," said Striegel, who is conducting seven of the entreneurship classes for children across the state this summer.
Students enrolled in the classes come up with ideas for their own little business, which they run throughout the week, and must keep simple accounting books indicating how much they have spent and how much they take in.
They design their own currency, which the children called "oo-wud-za," the Hidatsa word for money, which takes on the importance of real currency in the little world of the school and their own small town, which was called "Villa Nova," which means "New Town" in Spanish.
To start out, students agreed they would earn a certain amount of money for arriving on time, wearing a name tag and wearing clothes. The students handed over the "oo-wud-tsa" bills to pay rent to the teacher for use of her classroom, to the school principal for use of the building, and Striegel encouraged the children's parents to charge "oo-wud-tsa" for the items they purchased for the kids to sell in their businesses.
Read the full article at: The Minot Daily News
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