Joliet 5th-graders showcased their business skills: ‘This is really about helping the kids’

Personal shoppers. Dog walkers. Game consultants. Nail technicians.

These were just a few of the business that approximately 40 fifth-graders showcased on May 13 at Laraway Community Consolidated School District 70C in Joliet.

Amberley Maierhofer, a fifth grade teacher at Laraway who coordinated the event, said the business showcase was not “a cute project.”

“This is really about helping the kids to grow and succeed in life,” Maierhofer said. “It is really meant to provide a vision for our students as a way to look at the world around them and see that they actually have all the tools they need to start providing opportunities for themselves.”

Maierhofer, who invited families and professionals to attend the May 13 event, said teachers at Laraway brainstormed ways to increase student engagement during the 2021-22 school year to balance the remote learning of the past two years.

One way Maierhofer accomplished it was encouraging her students to think past “looking for a job” to actually owning and building their businesses while they were studying the economy.

As entrepreneurs, students had to switch to a “CEO/business mentality” and discuss “spending versus income,” she said. Maierhofer asked her students to envision their life 10 years in the future and what “persevering for the sake of a dream” looked like, Maierhofer said.

Students developed business plans and prototypes, built websites and created video commercials, she said.

Guests who attended the business showcase received six digital checks to “purchase” items or services, Maierhofer said.

No actual items were bought or sold because not all students had the means or support to create physical items to sell, she said.

However, some students plan to collaborate with their parents to actually launch their products and services, Maierhofer said.

Either way, learning about entrepreneurship was a good way for students to assess and apply their skills and talents in order to find success, she said.

“No student is going to leave our fifth grade or my classroom without knowing they were successful and that what they had was appreciated,” Maierhofer said.

The best part of the project was that students learned from other students — and so did the teachers, one of the benefits of student-led teaching, Maierhofer said.

“There’s much more these kids can do,” Maierhofer, said. “When we give them the opportunity, they rise to the occasion.”