SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Have you ever tried creating your own business and putting it to the test? That’s exactly what students at George McGovern Middle School are doing. Friday, they put their ideas in front of fellow classmates to see if they could earn their trust and cold hard cash.
From goods to services, eighth graders are putting their business plans into practice.
“So we are selling products here to other students. We’ve been working on our business plans for a while. We’re here selling what we’ve made. What we’ve come up with,” Carter Benson said.
Benson’s group is targeting fellow classmates’ cravings for snacks by selling popcorn, donuts and Kool Aid.
“It’s junk food so middle schoolers are going to love it,” Benson said.
McGovern’s Market is the culmination of a program led by the national organization Youth Entrepreneurs.
Youth Entrepreneurs loans the students the money for their projects. The kids have to pay it all back and anything they make over that amount, they get to keep.
“My group is called Drip Gloss 2.0 where we sell hair products, lip products like lip glosses. Scrunchies, hair clips as you can see all over my hair,” Keita said.
Keita says the program has been a lot of fun but challenging at the same time when it comes to working with others.
“It is hard because everyone always has different ideas. So it’s hard to incorporate everyone’s ideas into one so it just makes it really stressful,” Keita said.
While it’s taking Drip Gloss 2.0 a little while to repay their loan, RM Cuisine is battling a supply issue.
“I made Filipino egg rolls and my partner made Japanese roll cakes,” Micheline Guincu said.
The egg rolls and cakes were such a hit, they sold out in ten minutes.
“It makes me happy that I can bring in my culture into something like this and I hope my partner feels the same way,” Guincu said.
“We both put in a lot of effort into it,” Guincu said.
And it paid off. Their loan was $50 and they brought in $64. Creating a business is something Micheline Guincu never thought about but now she’s into it.
“It’s been really fun. I actually, that’s been one of the classes I really look forward to,” Guincu said.
All of the eighth graders opted into studying Youth Entrepreneurs during their ninth period this quarter. Following the market, they’ll get back together to talk about what worked and what didn’t.
