Cupertino Teens Teach Elementary Schoolers About Business

FBLA, also known as Future Business Leaders of America, is the largest student run organizations in the nation, with over 240,000 members. In Cupertino High School, FBLA is one of the largest clubs on campus, with a membership of 240 students, almost 10% of the student body. The initiatives of FBLA often focus on partnering with schools or business to impact the community by providing specific demographics with business knowledge.

Specifically, this past year, Cupertino FBLA has partnered with Sedgwick Elementary School to provide fifth graders with the opportunity to learn about e-business and the American Enterprise System. In November and December, FBLA traveled to the local Sedgwick Elementary School and taught students about E-Business, personal finances, management decision making, and running a business. At the culmination of these events, FBLA hosted a large for-profit marketplace where students of these lessons each created a business, selling specific goods such as homemade slime, homemade rice krispies, and baked cookies. Along with the administration of the school, the committee set up facilities, including a location for centralized dollar-to-ticket conversions and empty tables for the student booths. All in all, 87 students were in attendance, earning a collective $1795 through their own hard work and creativity, which all went towards the school’s fundraising goal in order for students to attend science camp.

The program had 5 lessons, listed below:

The first lesson of Holiday Marketplace taught 5th-grade students at Sedgwick Elementary School about the general rules guiding the management of a business. Student volunteers from Cupertino High School FBLA, began by introducing what Holiday Marketplace is, so the 5th-grade students had an expectation of what they would accomplish in the following month. CHS FBLA volunteers then introduced the business concepts that would become crucial in the Sedgwick students’ designing of a successful business. Students learned about what a successful business looks like, and the components that go into making a business profi table in the long run.

The second lesson of Holiday Marketplace revolved around how to construct a proper logo that fits appropriately in the business. Students were taught how to make a logo look clean, what colors to use, and how to make their logo look appealing. They interacted with Canva to test out some of their own designs and see the process in action. Along the way, students were given pointers and helpful tips on how to make their logo more professional and appropriate to their business. Overall, the main idea of this lesson was to help the students build their logo for their business and educate them on how an appealing logo is made.

The third lesson of Holiday Marketplace introduced the subject of personal finance. After reviewing the topics of e-business and business marketing covered in the previous lesson, volunteers talked about the differences between needs vs. wants, as well as short-term and long-term goals, and explained how these differences should be taken into account in personal budgets. To introduce the three components of a budget: revenue, savings, and net income, the volunteers demonstrated how income statements are used and presented a case study for the students to analyze.

The fourth lesson opened by a review of the previous lesson on personal finance, followed by an introduction to different topics related to banking. Volunteers began by outlining checking accounts and savings accounts. Afterward, they explained the concept of credit and the four types: revolving, charge, service, and installment. Students then learned about cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and its impact on a global scale. Then, teachers organized a stock market simulation in which groups of students were allowed to invest in three different corporations by buying shares given a certain amount of money.

In the fifth and final lesson, 5th-grade students at Sedgwick Elementary School reviewed the concepts taught by members of Cupertino High School’s FBLA chapter during the holiday marketplace program. Students began by participating in a Kahoot made by members of the committee, testing their knowledge on previously learned topics including cryptocurrency, personal finance, and e-business. Afterward, volunteers taught students the importance of pricing, how to maximize profit, and how to calculate profit margin. Using their newly acquired information, students decided the prices of the products they were selling and continued working on their posters and logos for the Holiday Marketplace event.

Ultimately, students learned about how to manage a business, something that would be retaught again in high school. Thus, these students have uniquely been equipped with the foundations to become the future business leaders of America.