"Kids in business: Students create lucrative venture,"
The Miami Herald, by Cindy Rodrigues-Pereira, April 20, 2003

Ludlam Elementary School teacher Bob Lebron helps some fifth-graders who are involved in KidVentures Inc. The students adopted a tiger at Metrozoo with the profit they earned from creating and running their business, which marketed and sold greeting cards and mugs.

Running a business is not for everyone.

But some fifth-grade whiz' kids at Ludlam Elementary are not only learning how to make money at it, they're helping the community as well.

SOUTH MIAMI

The students are members of KidVentures Inc., a nonprofit organization that offers an entrepreneurial program to educate children about the realities of the business world.

The most recent group of Ludlam kids to come through the program cleared a tidy profit selling greeting cards and coffee mugs.

In January, they faced their final hurdle as entrepreneurs - deciding what to do with the $600-plus they had made.

They chose to adopt Carlita, a 9-year-old white Bengal tiger at Miami Metrozoo.

"Part of the lesson is giving back to the community," said Bob LeBron, one of their teachers.

The students presented the check to the zoo on Jan. 18 and
were each given a certificate of adoption.

The three-year-old KidVentures program was created by Alice Horn and is funded by private organizations and grants.

"We just had the idea of starting a business with kids and having them design their own products. And creating a business where they could learn all kinds of skills by selling those products," said Horn, who is also the executive director of the organization.

"Now the program has already expanded to other schools," she added.

As part of the program, the students have a designated business class once a week and the rest of their curriculum revolves around the business program.

"Most of the lessons have to do with profits, costs, merchandising, types of merchandising - anything a business person would need to know, " said LeBron.

The classes - help the students understand business etiquette and offer a chance to build relationships with other entrepreneurs.

At the end of the program, the students have knowledge about the real world and know that things don't miraculously appear on store shelves.

This year the program was divided between two classes, LeBron's and Belinda Soriano's, and each class had to create its own business.

The kids were presented with options and did their own research, which included handing out marketing surveys.

Greeting cards and coffee mugs were at" the top of the list, that's how "Kaleidoscope Kards" and "CraftyKids" emerged.

The cards were designed by the students, and a combination of their ideas was used to create the messages.

As part of the advertising strategy, the students passed out flyers, visited classrooms and even created a rap song.

"It was kind of hard because you had to do [rap] about mugs. When you do it for yourself, you can do it about whatever you want," said student Zack Marshall.

The students held a sales event at the Shops at Sunset Place, where a table was set up with the samples of the items.

They had to deal with people who wouldn't even look at them, and also with language problems.

"I had a rough time because some [customers] only speak Spanish and though I know Spanish it was pretty hard to translate what I wanted to say," said student Christian Armas about his experience.

If a customer was ever. in doubt, the students would offer a business card for the person to call when ready to order.

Other sales events were held at First National Bank of South Miami, where they were given a tour through the different departments.

The kids also did a business presentation for the South Miami Kiwanis Club.

"It was a big meeting, and we told them about our cards, and how we make our business, and how we make our profits," said student Jackira Ortiz.