PURPOSE OF PROJECT

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Several specific goals for the project were established early in the project’s development to provide direction and purpose for the project:

The statistics are frightening. In America, millions of people are struggling every day just to get by. All across America, welfare offices and homeless shelters resound with the cries of the poor and hungry.

The reality is bleak, but hope lies in one source: education. With proper financial and business education, there is hope for society to escape the tragedies of poverty and unemployment. In fact, an overwhelming 52 percent of American teenagers and 85 percent of parents believe that business and financial education is vital to success in life and should be taught in schools. Despite this, business education is unfortunately not readily taught in American schools. Accordingly, Cupertino High School FBLA’s American Enterprise Project sought to provide vital business education for members of the community and thus offer the skills and knowledge necessary for future success.

Project LEAD (Leading Education And Development) chose to combat the critical issue of poverty by ed-ucating students about entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship, or the process of starting and managing a business, gives any individual in the American free enterprise system the opportunity to develop his or her own business and thus create great wealth and new jobs. Indeed, knowledge on entrepreneurship has the prospect of allowing the impoverished to escape a life of poverty and despair. Keeping this in mind, Project LEAD members taught various aspects of entrepreneurship to students in both the immediate and surrounding community.

PROJECT GOALS

In 2014, an estimated 45 million people, or 14.5 percent of Americans, lived below the poverty line; in other words, a family of four had an income of less than $23,550.

INTRODUCTION

To achieve the goals of the project, Project LEAD educated elementary school students through the Holiday Market-place program, middle school students through the Business Apprenticeship, and high school students through a variety of events.

1. INSPIRE students of various ages to become the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders.

2. EDUCATE students about different components of entrepreneurship: marketing, management, finance, and more.

3. HELP students discover their potential to enter the world economy and create wealth.

The primary goal of the Holiday Market-place program was to develop an interest in entrepreneurship in fifth-grade students from the chapter’s immediate community. To accomplish this, Project LEAD members taught fifth-grade students from Sedgwick Elementary School basic principles of entrepreneurship over four weekly lessons. The program cul-minated in the Holiday Marketplace event, in which students experienced creating their own businesses by developing their own prod-uct ideas to sell to others using pitches, adver-tisements, and good salesmanship techniques. The combined profit of $670 from all the businesses present at the event was subsequently donated to Safe Haven Animal Shelter.

High School EducationTo educate high school students on entrepreneurship, Project LEAD hosted various speakers at Cupertino High throughout the year who spoke to students on their experiences in the world of business. The project also raised general awareness of the American enterprise system by creating a video on the impor-tance of the American enterprise system for American Enter-prise Day.

The Business Apprenticeship program provided business education for stu-

dents from a low-income setting away from the chapter’s immediate community. The program was made possible through a

partnership with Citizen Schools California, a non-profit organization that partners with

poorer middle schools across the nation to expand students’ learning day. Through Citizen School’s partnership with William

Sheppard Middle School, chapter mem-bers served as teachers for the Business

Apprenticeship, a class offered as part of the Citizen Schools program. Chapter members

visited Sheppard over 10 weeks with weekly entre-preneurship lessons, games, and assessments shaped

by the performance and response of the students each week. Near the conclusion of the program, the students

held a bake sale where they were able to employ the knowledge they had gained of business plans, mar-keting strategies, handling finances, and more. Half

of the profits were subsequently donated to St. Jude’s Childrens Research Hospital while the other half was divided amongst the students. At the finale event for

the program, the students presented to parents and members of the community on what they had learned throughout the 10-week business education program.

Project members lead a lesson on market-ing for fifth-grade students at Sedgwick Elementary School as part of the Holiday Marketplace program.

Business ApprenticeshipHoliday Marketplace

Project members with the Business Apprenticeship class at Sheppard Middle School.

Awareness of the American En-

terprise system was raised through video promotion.

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PROJECT OVERVIEW

STATISTICS AT SHEPPARD MIDDLE SCHOOL

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31% of students are proo-cient in Math17

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RESEARCH INTO COMMUNITY NEEDS

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Immediate Community Cupertino High School is located in Cupertino, a city in Santa Clara County, California, with a population of 60,189 people. Notably, Cupertino is the hometown of Apple Inc.’s corporate headquarters and many other major companies like Oracle and IBM. The city, like many others in the Silicon Valley, is a hub for enterprising startup com-panies. In accordance with the entrepreneurial spirit of the city, the project sought to educate younger students in the Cupertino community about entrepreneurship to build in these students a solid understanding of the world of busi-ness surrounding them. Therefore, Project LEAD directed its attention to students from Sedgwick Elementary School and Cupertino High School, schools both located in cen-tral Cupertino.

Surrounding Community Project LEAD recognized that Cupertino, a city fortunate enough to be relatively affluent, is not entirely representative of the majority of cities in California.The harsh reality is that California has the nation’s highest poverty rate, with 16.9 percent of residents (8.9 million people) living below the poverty line. To truly make an impact on the lives of less-fortu-nate individuals, Project LEAD decided to reach out to students from San Jose, a large city located just 17 minutes away from Cupertino. Sheppard Middle School is located in north San Jose and has a student body consisting mainly of students from low-er-income backgrounds. Of the school population, 86 percent of students participate in a free or reduced lunch program, available for those living below an annual income of $42,643 for a family of four. Additionally, in 2013, only 45 percent of the students at Sheppard Middle School were proficient in English and Language Arts and only 31 percent were profi-cient in math (based on STAR testing standards).

The school is partnered with California Citizen Schools, an organization that works with middle schools across the nation to improve the academic successes of at-risk students through supplementary afterschool classes. Project LEAD worked with Citizen Schools to host a one-and-a-half-hour entrepreneurship class, called the “Business Apprenticeship,” every Wednesday for a total of ten weeks.

Cupertino is home to many major companies like Apple Inc.

PROJECT PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

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PLANNINGIn June 2014, project chair Isabel Lin began planning for the project. The planning process began with understanding the purpose of the American Enterprise project, as outlined by the national FBLA event guidelines. Next steps included find-ing a focus for the project, which Isabel decided should be on entrepreneurship; afterall, entrepreneurship enables individ-uals to create companies, thereby creating personal wealth and innumerable job opportunities. Furthermore, knowledge on entrepreneurship would allow students to be exposed to the world of business and commerce. Over the summer, Isabel worked to develop a comprehensive plan for the coming year, including a timeline of events and project goals.

Holiday MarketplaceIn June, Isabel contacted Jean Wang, vice-principal of Sedg-wick Elementary School, to inform her of Project LEAD and invite Sedwick to work with the project to inspire fifth-grade students to pursue entrepreneurship. Sedgwick was chosen for the project because of its proximity to Cuperti-no High School, and fifth-graders were chosen as the target students because they were expected to be mature enough to comprehend the project’s lessons. Jean expressed great interest in working with Project LEAD, so Isabel met with Jean and the fifth-grade teachers of Sedgwick (Stephanie Choy, Sean Breidenthal, Chris Stibbard) to plan the logis-tics of the Holiday Marketplace program. While planning, it was decided that the program would be incorporated as a mandatory component of the fifth-graders’ school curric-ulum, as the teachers found it essential to educate students on important concepts pertaining to finance, leadership, and business. The program’s one-hour lessons were sched-uled to take place over four Friday lessons, with five to six project members teaching in each of the three fifth-grade classrooms. The finale of the program, or the Holiday Mar-ketplace event, was scheduled to take place after the final lesson; profits earned by the student-run “businesses” at the Holiday Marketplace event were tentatively planned to be donated to a local non-profit.

Sheppard Middle School students pose next to the school sign.

Business ApprenticeshipIsabel also contacted Jen Koelling, program director of Cal-ifornia Citizen Schools, over the summer to inform her of Project LEAD and its efforts to provide business education for students. Jen expressed excitement over the possibility of working with Project LEAD, so in July, Isabel visited Sheppard Middle School for a Citizen Schools teacher training workshop, where she learned how to effectively lead and engage students. At the workshop, Isabel was part-nered with teaching fellow Rene Montoya, an AmeriCorps teacher, who would serve as a liaison to the Sheppard and Citizen Schools staff. In early August, Isabel visited the campus again to pitch to the sixth-grade students on why they should choose to enroll in the Business Apprentice-ship class, to be taught by project members.

The Marketplace program was held at Sedgwick Elementary School.

project chair

holiday marketplace committee

business apprentice-ship committee

operations committee

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DEVELOPMENTAt the start of the school year, the project chair presented a brief introduction of Project LEAD at a general FBLA

meeting, encouraging FBLA members to attend a second, more specific, informational meeting for members looking to participate in the project. At the meeting, the project chair outlined the specific components of the project and how members could participate by 1) involving themselves as project members who would volunteer to teach for the programs or 2) applying to be committee members. Committee members would serve as leaders of the project, helping to plan and develop the lessons and events to be implemented by general project members.

Following the meeting, 28 members applied to join the three committees offered. Five members were admitted to each committee, for a total of 15 committee members. Committee members were expected to attend hour-long, weekly committee meetings every Thursday to discuss, design, and develop events with the project chair; they were also expected to assign tasks to project members (67 total members), complete extra assignments outside of meetings, and communi-cate with the project chair on plans. Committee meetings commenced near the end of September.

Holiday Marketplace CommitteeThe Holiday Marketplace Committee was in charge

of preparing the lesson plans and teachers for the Holiday Marketplace program at Sedgwick Elementary School. The program’s lessons on entrepreneurship basics, marketing, and finance were directed towards preparing students for the Holiday Marketplace event, for which the students, in groups of three, would sell homemade products to the school and community for profit. While planning, the committee structured each lesson to include a presentation from project members teaching new skills, an educational game or role play activity, and time for the students to plan and develop their businesses for the Holiday Marketplace event. The committee took care to develop lesson plans that would place an emphasis on interacting with the students rather than lecturing them; the presentation slides were mostly pictures, not words, and games such as Bingo were included in the lesson plans.

To measure the fifth-grade students’ growth throughout the program, the committee also referred to questions from FBLA competitions such as Entrepreneurship, Business Procedures, and Marketing, and modified them to make a pre- and post-assessment for the students.

The finale of the Holiday Marketplace program, or the actual Holiday Marketplace event, was scheduled to take

place after the fourth and final lesson. During the event, the fifth-graders would be able to utilize the knowledge they had gained on entrepreneurship by creating and selling products to the community. Over the course of several committee meetings, the logistics relating to the event were meticulously developed. A schedule for the three-hour long event was established, with specific times for setup, cleanup, and more. The committee also planned out the roles and responsibilities that project volunteers would have during the event, such as manning an information desk, dispensing change, and more. The project chair also worked with the Sedgwick staff to secure an on-campus venue and materials (tables, chairs, etc.) for the event.

Prior to the event, committee members created adver-tisements to help spread the news about the event. Physical ads were designed and posted around Sedgwick and Cuper-tino High, while digital flyers circulated on social media and the Cupertino High School website. The fifth-grade student council helped to promote the event by visiting various classrooms to pitch the event to other students. Parents, teachers, and students also helped spread the news by word. The project chair worked with the Sedgwick administration to email electronic flyers to all the Sedgwick students’ fam-ilies. Moreover, the local newspaper, The Cupertino Couri-er, was contacted and asked to help promote the event.

Organizational structure of Project LEAD

Business Apprenticeship CommitteeThe Business Apprenticeship Committee was in charge of creating the lesson plans, powerpoints, and other resources

for the weekly lessons at Sheppard Middle School. The committee had tasks similar to the Holiday Marketplace com-mittee, but the students in the Business Apprenticeship program were older middle schoolers that would require a more comprehensive teaching approach. Therefore, the committee designed exercises that would foster a deeper knowledge and understanding of business principles compared to those of the more basic lessons created by the Holiday Market-place committee for the fifth graders.

Members of the committee met during weekly committee meetings to decide on activities and topics for every lesson and systematically divided each one-and-a-half-hour time block to include time for activities focused on research, pre-sentations, worksheets, and applications. The application portions of lessons were a variety of different tasks. At times, they were hands-on projects which assisted the students in furthering their education. Examples of application activities included requiring students to create management hierarchies, financial plans, and full business plans. In preparing each lesson, the committee divided tasks related to development of the lesson and worked individually to create worksheets, make quizzes, and more. After all lesson materials were compiled, they were given to the teachers, or project members, in charge of that lesson.

Because the lessons were being planned while they were being taught by other project members, the committee was able to receive immediate feedback and insight into the effectiveness of certain activities and lessons. Each week, the response to the lesson plans was discussed and used to improve the future plans. The committee found quizzes to be very helpful in measuring what students learned from each lesson; through the quizzes, the committee could identify topics that needed to be retaught or should have been omitted.

Operations CommitteeThe Operations Committee was responsible for coordinating project events directed towards teaching high school students about entrepreneurship and the American enterprise system. The committee met during weekly committee meetings to plan events dedicated to reaching this goal. During October and November, the committee outlined poten-tial activities for American Enterprise Day (November 15) that would educate high schoolers and the community about the American enterprise system. After much brainstorming, the committee decided to produce a video in a fast-motion photography style that would inform the public about the free enterprise system. The committee met to script, record, edit, and promote the video upon release. To further educate high schoolers on entrepreneurship as a potential career path, the committee contacted local entre-preneurs and invited them to speak to Cupertino High students about entrepreneurship. The committee also worked with Cupertino High administration to provide business speakers for Career Day. Career Day is an annual event hosted by Cupertino High to help students gain exposure to a variety of careers; this year, Career Day featured over 80 speakers from a myriad of jobs. The Operations Committee was able to recruit two speakers, Alpa and Jagesh Sanghavi, to speak for the event and thus educate high school students on business-related careers.

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Project LEAD chair and committee members

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IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECTHOLIDAY MARKETPLACE

By early November, the Holiday Marketplace Committee had prepared basic outlines of all the lesson plans to be taught over the four-week program. In preparation for the first lesson of the program on November 17, the committee opened signups for members who wished to participate in the project and teach the fifth grade classes. In total, 34 mem-bers signed up to participate in the project; through the responses, the committee was able to create a network of teachers for the program and schedule teachers for various lessons, with groups of about five to six teachers assigned to each of the three classrooms for every lesson.

Committee members were paired with the groups of teachers to guide the teachers in preparing for and carrying out the lessons. Prior to each lesson, the committee member in charge of the teacher group emailed the lesson plan to the teachers, gave them advice on how to best engage the fifth graders, and held at least one meeting with the group of teach-ers to run through the lesson and offer feedback. It was entirely up to the project members who had volunteered to teach to split up roles for the lessons and work with one another to present an outstanding lesson. During lessons, committee members also served as helpful resources if the group of teachers ran into any complications.

Each lesson in the Holiday Marketplace program sought to teach concepts that would expand students’ knowledge on entrepreneurship and prepare the students for the Holiday Marketplace event.

Lesson 1: Basics of EntrepreneurshipLesson 1 was an introduction to the basics of entrepreneurship and an

overview to the Holiday Marketplace event. To start the lesson, the teach-ers began with a 20-minute opening simulation in which students were designated as either entrepreneurs, bankers, suppliers, or consumers. For the entrepreneurs to start their businesses, they had to take out bank loans from the bankers; then, the entrepreneurs used the bank loans to purchase materials (Hershey’s Kisses) from the suppliers. After establishing their “businesses,” the entrepreneurs competed with one another to make the most money from selling the Kisses. It was up to the entrepreneurs to decide how much to price their candy, knowing that each consumer only had $2. Following the selling period, the entrepreneurs had to pay back their bank loans to the bankers. The simulation was extremely successful in getting the students excited about the program and gave students insight into how the market works and the processes that entrepreneurs must go through to establish a business.

Pre-LessonBefore the project members’ first visit to Sedgwick, the fifth grade teachers from Sedgwick administered the pre-assess-ment created by the committee to evaluate students’ initial knowledge of entrepreneurship. The teachers also distribut-ed permission slips for the Holiday Marketplace event, which would take place during after-school hours and require monetary support by the students’ parents. Of the 99 total students, only 5 were not permitted to participate in the event due to time conflicts. All fifth grade students were required to participate in the program lessons, for the program was an integrated part of the fifth graders’ academic curriculum.

Project member distributes paper money to students as part of a simulation activity for the Holiday Marketplace program. Hands-on activities and games were often used to engage and teach fifth-grade students.

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Following the simulation, the teachers gave an interactive presentation on the basics of business. Topics included:

To encourage students to develop teamwork skills, the students were split into groups and given 5 minutes to work together to build the tallest tower using only spaghetti and pieces of tape. Near the conclusion of the lesson, students were asked to get into groups of three for the Holiday Marketplace event. Each group of three would be “business partners” and create their own business together for the event. The students were also given product proposal worksheets and customer interest surveys to be completed by the next lesson; these were supposed to help groups decide what products to sell for the event. The project members placed several limitations on the products, such as requiring food items to be wrapped, banning drinks, and enforcing a budget of $40 per group.

Lesson 2: FinanceIn Lesson 2, teachers taught students about how companies are financed and how business-es manage money. Topics included:

During the lesson, the product proposal worksheets were also collected. Committee mem-bers would review the proposals before the third lesson and assign groups with products to be sold during the Holiday Marketplace event. The conclusion of the lesson consisted of a game of bingo in which students demonstrated understanding of the finance terms taught during the lesson.

Lesson 3: Marketing In preparation for the Holiday Marketplace event, teachers taught students various mar-keting strategies and components to ensure that students would be able to successfully sell their products at the event. Topics included:

To practice pitching products, students were given random items that they were to prac-tice pitching to the rest of the class. During the lesson, the groups and their corresponding products for the event were also announced. Students were given in time during class to work with their teammates to create marketing materials such as posters. At the conclu-sion of the lesson, the students were reminded to bring their products and any additional materials like tape and posters on the event day. Because there was winter vacation preced-ing the event date, groups agreed on times to meet over break to create and package their products. Students were expected to keep track of their expenses by keeping receipts for materials purchased. The local newspaper, The Cupertino Courier, visited during the lesson to publicize Proj-ect LEAD’s efforts to inspire students to pursue entrepreneurship and inform the commu-nity about the Holiday Marketplace event. An article featuring the Holiday Marketplace program was published both in the November issue of the newspaper and online.

Advertising: taglines and logos Pitches Aesthetic appeal Pricing

Banks Money management Income statementsEquity/stocks Venture capitalists

Aspects of successful businesses Goods vs. services Target audiencesSupply and demand Teamwork in businesses

Students learned the importance of teamwork while working in groups to create the tallest spaghetti tower.

Project member reminds students to complete product proposals.

Project LEAD received publicity by the local newspaper.

A student practices an elevator pitch in front of the class.

Lesson 4: Holiday Marketplace Event PreparationsBefore the start of the event, groups were given time for last-minute preparations. Project members gave advice to the groups and went over the logistics of the event. Each group was designated a table, or selling booth, to sell their products to event visitors. In addition, groups were given a balance sheet to record transactions of money during one-and-a-half-hour selling period. Groups then moved all their materials and products to the selling venue, the school’s Guid-ed Learning Center, to set up their booths.

Post-LessonFollowing the event, students were given the post-assessment to gauge how much they learned from the entire Holiday Marketplace experience. Results showed a 40 percent increase from the pre-as-sessment scores. With the help of the Sedgwick teachers, the money for material expenses was returned to the students’ families and then all profits were combined. In total, the 33 businesses made a profit total of $670! Together, the fifth-grade students decided to donate the money to Safe Haven Animal Shelter, a local animal shelter.

Holiday Marketplace EventThe program lessons culminated with the Holiday Marketplace

event, which enabled students to apply the principles of entrepre-neurship that they had learned by creating and selling products of their own. On event day, December 5, twenty FBLA members volunteered to help run the event, helping students manage finances and also acting as customers. Six of the members also coordinated a help desk in shifts for questions from teachers, customers, and students.

The actual Marketplace event allowed the fifth grade students to finally showcase and sell their homemade products, which ranged from cupcakes to Christmas tree ornaments. The event was open to the community, including parents, younger elementary school stu-dents, siblings, teachers, and the general public. The groups proudly displayed their products and employed many creative ways to ad-vertise their products. During the event, students in the groups were able to rotate out and shop at their peers’ booths while the rest of the group remained stationed at the booth to sell. The event turned out to be a great success, with a turnout of over 200 visitors. At the con-clusion of the selling period, each group’s revenue was collected in a group envelope and given to the Sedgwick teachers for safekeeping. Project members helped clean up after the event to return the venue to its original condition.

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The Business Apprenticeship classes began in early September and attracted active participation from many mem-bers who dedicated their time and energy in order to educate the students at Sheppard Middle School. The ten-lesson program was divided into three rounds, each round having three to four 1.5 hour lessons. Before the start of each round, members signed up to serve as teachers for the entire round; four to five teachers were chosen as teachers for each round. Prior to each lesson, teachers would receive lesson plans created by committee members; it was up to the teachers to execute the lesson plan. Thus, teachers would meet up before the lesson to discuss and go over plans. In total, 11 students participated as project members and teachers for the program and gained valuable leadership and guiding skills.

Each lesson in the program was directed towards teaching important aspects of entrepreneurship to the sixth-grade students. Major business concepts that were taught included business plans, marketing strategies, product development, finance, and more. All lessons sought to provide students with essential knowledge that would allow for entrepreneurial success in the future.

BASICS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIPTeachers taught about basic entrepreneurship concepts and students were asked to brainstorm characteristics of successful businesses. The teachers then led a class discussion on aspects of successful businesses: marketing, manage-ment, competitive advantage, and customer service.

BUSINESS PLANSProject members taught students the compo-nents of a business plan, namely the business idea, competitive advantage, marketing strategy, and financial plan.

MARKETING STRATEGIESTeachers taught students about effective mar-keting tools like taglines, logos, and commer-cials. The students also learned and practiced presenting elevator pitches to their classmates.

LESSON 1-3 REVIEWThe teachers reviewed the topics covered in the first three weeks and had the students partici-pate in a short competition between groups to create and pitch the best business idea.

10-LESSON OVERVIEW

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COMPANY FINANCESThe students learned how entrepreneurs get fund-ing for businesses (bank loans, investors, equity) and how businesses manage money through accounting and income statements.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENTProject members taught students how companies are structured through hierarchies, and students assumed different roles within the management hierarchy to experience how a company runs.

PERSONAL FINANCEStudents learned the basics of managing their own money through goal-setting and budgeting. The previous lessons were also reviewed through a “Jeopardy” style game.

MANUFACTURINGStudents were taught the processes involved in manufacturing products: processing materials, producing products, and moving the products.

BAKE SALE & PARENT-NIGHT PREPDuring the last two lessons, the students worked on packaging food for a bake sale and preparing their presentation for the parent-night.

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BUSINESS APPRENTICESHIP

Santa’s Sweet Tooth Bake SaleTo teach the students more about commerce and running a business,

project members dedicated the last two lessons to preparation time for stu-dents to create their own “business.” Because the students were very inter-ested in restaurant businesses and food products, they voted to host a bake sale under the company name “Santa’s Sweet Tooth.”

The Business Apprenticeship committee contacted various local busi-nesses to see if they could donate food products for the bake sale. Target was very generous and donated 200 cookies. During the last two lessons, the stu-dents used cellophane squares and ribbon to carefully package the cookies into small goodie bags containing three cookies each. Using the knowledge they had gained on pricing and target audience, the students decided to price the cookie packages at $1 each.

Meanwhile, the project chair worked with the administration of Shep-pard to coordinate a time and location for the students to sell their products to the rest the student body. Advertisements for the bake sale were created by committee members and posted around campus by the students, who also went around classrooms to pitch the bake sale.

On the afternoon of the bake sale, the students took charge, setting up and running their “business.” Students stepped forward and took leadership positions, engaging in enthusiastic conversation with customers and using their knowledge of promotional techniques to entice potential customers to purchase the cookies. While some stayed at the selling table, others decided to take it to the next level, and began walking around and advertising for their products. The students’ maturity and extensive knowledge of market-ing enabled them to sell all the products, earning them about $200. Al-though they were very pleased with the amount of money they earned, the students made the selfless decision to donate half of the profits to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and to split the remaining profits amongst themselves.

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Parent-Night (WOW!) The program culminated in the parent-night event, called WOW! by Citizen Schools, in which students from the Business Apprenticeship class presented to their parents and community members on what they had learned through the course of the program. In prepa-ration for the event, project members helped students create a presentation and a display tri-fold during the last two lessons. In addition, five students were chosen to be presenters for the presentation; project members helped students write scripts for the presentation. Students worked on WOW! while also packaging products for the bake sale. On the evening of WOW!, students and family members enjoyed a night celebrating the students’ growth as a result of the class.

Business Apprenticeship students presented to their parents during the WOW! parent night event.

Business Apprenticeship students package goods for the bake sale.

Business Apprenticeship students utilized marketing skills while selling baked goods.

HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATIONAmerican Enterprise Day

November 15 is recognized as American Enterprise Day by FBLA-PBL. On this day, the Operations Committee wanted to inform and educate the community about the importance of the American enterprise system. Therefore, on November 14, the committee released a video on YouTube promoting American Enterprise Day. The video was created in a fast-motion photography style, featuring hand-drawn visuals with a voice over. Through promotion of the video, 619 viewers were made aware of the American enterprise system and its critical presence in the nation’s workforce, as well as its benefits to the ordinary American citizen. Along with the release of the video, FBLA members also promoted American Enterprise Day by wearing business formal to school. This was effective in raising awareness among high-schoolers for the American enterprise system, as it acquainted students with the possibility of becoming a part of the business world.

Entrepreneur SpeakersTo inspire high-school students to pursue entrepreneurship, the Operations Committee contacted many successful entrepreneurs and invited them to speak to students from Cupertino High on their experiences. The goal was to educate students on how they could start their own businesses in the future and allow students the opportunity to learn from the advice of business professionals. Speaker events were open to the entire school, not just FBLA members. One notable speaker included Mr. Joe Pereira, Network World’s 2004 “Who Wants to be an Entrepreneur” award winner, and the founder of Xample, a media analytics company.

Career DayCareer Day is an annual event at Cupertino High School that exposes students to a myriad of potential career paths. This school year, the event included about 80 speakers that presented to roughly 2000 students about different careers in the workforce. The Operations Committee worked with the school administration to bring in business speakers who would educate students about their careers in the business world. Speakers provided by the project included Alpa Sanghavi, Experience Officer for San Mateo Medical Center, and Jagesg Sanghavi, Engineering Director at Cadence.

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To celebrate American Enterprise Day, FBLA members wore business formal to school.

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67 members from the chapter participated in the project. The Holiday Marketplace program impacted a total of 99 fifth-grade students while the Business Apprenticeship educated 27 sixth-grade students; a large number of high-school students were impact-ed by the project as well. The project’s programs included a total of 25 instructional hours, encompassing both lessons and hands-on events. Combined, the committees and the project chair spent about 40 hours solely on lesson and event planning. The nearly $800 that was raised was donated to charitable causes (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Safe Haven Animal Shelter).

EVALUATION AND RESULTS

Holiday MarketplaceComparisons of the pre- and post- assessment scores showed an average percentage increase of about 40 percent; in

addition, only 61 percent of students passed the pre- assessment, but 72 percent of students passed the post-assessment. The dramatic differences in test scores clearly showed that students at Sedgwick had obtained much knowledge through the program duration. Students and parents alike were very enthusiastic throughout the entire program. With the pro-gram being such a huge success, Sedgwick administration has expressed interest in holding the program again in future years and extending the lessons to span over six weeks.

Business ApprenticeshipThrough the 10-week entrepreneurship class, students from low-income families were able to learn about critical aspects of entrepreneurship such as management, product development, and financing. The students gained a better idea of how businesses run in the real world, and were encouraged to utilize the skills they learned for real-world entrepreneurial suc-cess. By reaching out to students from a less-fortunate community, Project LEAD was able to help these students discov-er their potential to escape a life of poverty through entrepreneurship.

Impact on High-School StudentsWhile the project impacted many students from Cupertino High by making them aware of the American enterprise sys-tem and inspiring them to pursue entrepreneurship after listening to various speakers, the project also hugely impacted project members themselves. Members who had to teach entire classes of younger students developed leadership abilities as well as presentation skills. In addition, while teaching, members also learned more about business.

Final EvaluationThough poverty is a frighteningly critical issue in America, steps are slowly being taken to address and improve condi-tions. Project LEAD sought to effect change in the lives of young students by educating them about entrepreneurship. Through the efforts the project undertook, students gained essential knowledge pertaining to entrepreneurship and financing that would be useful throughout their lives. Undoubtedly, Project LEAD made a life-changing impact on students and offered them the opportunity to discover their potential to become the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Project LEAD hopes that the students it affected will continue to explore the world of business and achieve success through the knowledge that they have gained.

BY THE NUMBERS

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APPENDIXBusiness Apprenticeship: Session 3 Notes

What is an elevator pitch?

● A 30­second to two-minute description of your business idea.

○ Includes the product summary, target market, competitive advantage

Pitching Activity

The item I am pitching is a(n)

Three selling points of my item:

Brainstorm for 2 minutes on why people should buy your item.

1.

2.

3.

Marketing Methods

● Include: TV commercials, flyers, advertisements, phone sales, etc.

Logos & Taglines

● Important marketing tools

● Capture the entire of the company

What is the purpose of a logo?

● Represents the company and its ideas

● Develops a

Parts of a good logo

● Simple, memorable, timeless, versatile, appropriate

Clockwise from left: Holiday Marketplace event flyer, Business Apprenticeship lesson handout, Business Apprenticeship bake sale flyer, Guest speaker flyer for high school education