My Entrepreneurship students won a trophy

For the past academic year I have been facilitating a Junior Achievers (JA) business/entrepreneurship course at the high school, in which students founded a mini-company. They wrote a business plan, raised startup capital by selling shares and taking out a loan (from JA), then they developed a product and sold for a profit—all to learn about basic business operations and entrepreneurship. We sold scarves, ordered from a factory and designed to meet the school’s dress code requirements (kids get punished if they don’t adhere to it). They had the school motto, “Simply the Best,” embroidered on the scarf and sold it for a decent profit.

Anyway, at the end of the course, and after a Liquidation Report was turned in, the program judges selected the top 10 mini-companies in Swaziland to gather for an awards expo… and we were invited. The kids were pretty excited about the prospects of winning something. I, on the other hand, was more excited about a big, fancy lunch.

It happened last Saturday (Oct. 17th) in Manzini. At this expo, the General Managers of all 10 companies gave presentations about their company’s experience—startup, product, financials, social responsibility projects, income statement, etc—and the judges watched. Then these judges (businessmen and community leaders) combined the scores with previous scores to decide who got the awards. There were 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophies, plus awards for CEO of the year, most innovative product, and best social responsibility project.

And you know what? Our little scarf company took home the grand prize: 1st place nationwide. Our CEO, a 17-year old boy named Makhosi, was interviewed for the local news. The school got a big, shiny trophy. The kids got prize money. I got that lunch. We were in the newspaper.

I know that winning isn’t everything, that the learning and practical experience gained by these students was its own reward… but I gotta tell you, winning feels good. And as the awards announcement approached that afternoon, I was just as nervous as my students. A little recognition is nice, you know? And for many of those kids, this was the most recognition they’d ever received. They danced on the bus all the way back home (see the video below).

It was a real challenge for me to be this program’s local facilitator. Cultural differences are really magnified in the classroom setting; they do school differently here, from corporal punishment to maddeningly “flexible” schedules… and frankly, I was never able to tell if anything I was teaching was actually sinking in. So it was nice that things ended happily. I guess sometimes you don’t know if a thing is worth doing until after you’re done doing it.

here's a short video for your viewing enjoyment...