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A Taste of Success

A school lunch can be pretty boring, but what if you had a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie to go with it? Would you rather buy three cookies for $1? That's exactly what students at Rafael Hernandez School in Newark, NJ do every day.

Cookies for Cash

These students don't buy cookies from just anybody, though. They get them from HYPE, a company run by their fellow students. HYPE (Hernandez Young People's Enterprise) workers arrive at school early each morning to bake Otis Spunkmeyer(r) cookies. Then, during lunch, the real work begins.

"Every lunch period we go downstairs to the cafeteria," says last year's HYPE CEO Ydalis Rolon. "We sell a lot of cookies," Ydalis adds that it's not just the students who buy the cookies - teachers and other school staff love them too. 

Getting Hyped

HYPE is part of a youth entrepreneurship training program for third through eighth graders in nine Newark, NJ schools. In addition to learning about entrepreneurship through class lessons, projects, and field trips, students also learn first-hand by opening their own businesses. At the end of each school year, the profits from each business are divided equally among the students who participated. 

According to 14-year-old Ydalis, students are involved in all business decisions, including choosing the business leaders. "We had to make speeches on why we wanted to be CEO," she says, explaining that students voted after hearing the speeches. "I thought that I could be a good leader." 

At first, HYPE sold school supplies and other merchandise, but decided they wanted to find a way to make more money. They soon discovered the Otis Spunkmeyer cookie company, but needed a place to bake and sell the cookies since all the rooms at school were full. They found someone willing to donate the wood and build a cart for them that would hold their Otis Spunkmeyer portable oven and cookies. Once they decided on pricing and got the word out, they were in business.

Bilingual Card Sales

HYPE isn't the only business at Hernandez School that grew out of the entrepreneurship training program. Global Youth Card Co. is a business created by two bilingual classes. These students sell greeting cards and have a customer base that includes students, teachers, and parents. According to 13-year-old Darwin Rivera, they came up with the idea as the holidays approached. 

"Christmas was coming and we thought that cards were a good idea," he explains. "We thought we could sell a lot of cards."

And they did, too. Global workers designed their own English and Spanish-language cards, and had a company print them. The $1 cards were such a hit that Global soon expanded their inventory to include school supplies. Global items aren't available all the time, but, rather, students decide when they want to have a sale. 

Classroom or Showroom?

During sales, their classroom is set up as a store with samples displayed of each item available. Global workers are divided into groups of four: the greeting, sales, inventory, and accounting divisions. 

When customers come into the store, a Global student greets them and lets them know what items are available. After customers browse and make decisions, they talk to a salesperson who takes their order. Customers are then sent to the inventory division at the back of the classroom to pick up their orders, and then visit the accounting division to pay. 

Most of their sales days are very successful. However, Global students recently learned that they can't always wait for customers to come to them. After a poor turnout for one of their sales, Global decided to go get the sales they wanted. They picked up their merchandise, visited other classrooms to take orders, and that sale turned out to be one of the best ever. 

Friendly Takeovers

Ydalis and Darwin, both eighth graders last year, have now graduated from the entrepreneurship program. Before they left, they helped train fifth and sixth graders to take over the business. Alisha DeLe?n, 10, is one of the students that took over the HYPE business this year. 

"Right now I'm just a beginner," Alisha says. "I'm learning about how to go up to people with the right attitude and about the type of clothing I have to wear. Everything is fun."

Sasha Leon, 11, one of the younger students who took over Global Youth Card Co., says she's already one of the company's top salespeople. "I like working in groups," she explains. "It's fun to be a part of a company because you learn about some of the things you might do in the future." 

Educator's Notes: Learning to Be Entrepreneurs

The Newark public school (SLT IV) youth entrepreneurship program, delivered by EDGE (a division of KidsWay, Inc.) started in 1997 at the Dr. E. Alma Flagg School. Under the direction of Lydia Silva, assistant superintendent of School Leadership Team IV in the Newark area, the program expanded in 1999 to nine schools and 18 classrooms. These include several special needs and bilingual classrooms, proving that entrepreneurship is a subject that can be adapted to any level or style of learning.