Raegan Dillon

“SURF - STEM Underwater Robotics Free-Enterprise”

The STEM Academy @ Bartlett, Savannah, Georgia

Each year, 8th graders at the STEM Academy @ Bartlett in Savannah, Georgia are allowed to sign up

for elective classes. One of the electives offered is a Georgia Department of Education Career,

Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) course called Research Design and Project Management.

This course is designed to ensure students have the skills they need to thrive in the future workforce.

The course began as an underwater robotics class. Students learn all about engineering and project

design as they build underwater remote operated vehicles, (ROVs). In order to create real world

connections and align with our school’s STEM philosophy, our class enters into the Marine Advanced

Technology Education (MATE) Center’s and National Marine Sanctuaries Gray’s Reef ROV

Competition. Students are involved in engineering solutions to global problems. Students must design

and build a ROV with the necessary sensors and tooling to tackle the real world problems of plastics in

our ocean, climate change’s impact on our coral reefs, and the consequences of poor environmental

practices on our inland waterways.

This is an amazingly enormous task for middle schoolers, but each year, they are up to the challenge.

Students begin working to solve the problem on day one of school. Students are introduced to the task

at hand and the requirements to complete the task. Mrs. Dillon, their instructor spends the first couple of

weeks having the students read background information and research the problems and challenges

presented. Next the idea of creating a company is organically born to tackle the daunting task of

financing and manufacturing the ROV. Students realize that in order to accomplish the objectives of

this course, they are going to have to work together, but divide and conquer the workload to succeed.

Students are introduced to the basics of business and company structure. Students brainstorm together

and come up with jobs for their corporation. Jobs and departments created are: CEO, CFO, Project

Manager, Marketing Department, Mechanical Engineering Department, and Electrical Engineering

Department.

Then the real fun begins. No longer is the room a classroom, but it is transformed into a workplace.

Students create resumes and complete job applications. Students access their strengths, aptitudes, and

desires to apply for the jobs. Students are then placed into their positions and begin operations. Each

day in our classroom, the day starts with a company meeting. The CEO runs the meeting and checks in

with each department. Then students divide up into their departments and work on different projects.

In order to make a company run, funds have to be available. It is the job of the entire company to raise

money to fund the company. Students are tasked with the challenge of becoming entrepreneurs. They

begin by brainstorming ideas. All ideas are accepted. Then the students break into smaller groups and

create a written proposal to bring back to the group. If the group likes the proposal, it is then taken to

the school principal, Dr. Cave, for approval.

Students work together to actually make their fundraising ideas realities. They have to plan, advertise,

and implement their ideas from start to finish. The lessons learned through this activity cannot be

learned from textbooks. Students are using real money as they learn about profits, losses, and risks.

Students make sure they are wise decision makers in order to earn profits. Students practice the free

enterprise system as they work together. Students learn that hard work and organization are necessary

to make their projects succeed.

After each fundraising venture, the company gets together to discuss lessons learned and to evaluate the

success or failure of the activity. Students have experienced both success and failure. The lessons

learned are used to plan more effectively in the future.

The profits earned from our company fundraisers are used to fund materials for our robot entered in the

MATE/Gray’s Reef ROV Competition. The profits are also used to buy team t-shirts, business cards,

and our competition marketing display. At the competition, students present a financial report to the

judges. This report includes all materials used in the competition and the amount we earned from

fundraisers. In addition to being judged on the robot, students are judged on their marketing display

based on their company, STEM Underwater Robotics Free enterprise, SURF.

In addition to creating and practicing their own entrepreneurial free enterprise, students also study and

learn from local Savannah Entrepreneurs. SURF hosts guest entrepreneurs bi-monthly to learn about

others who have created businesses that are succeeding in Savannah’s local economy.

SURF at the STEM Academy @ Bartlett is a free enterprise that teaches engineering, real world

problem solving, marketing, entrepreneurship while also building a corporate culture that builds trust

and encourages innovation. Thank you for this opportunity to share and for your consideration.

Greg Donnellan

“Middle School Entrepreneurship Program for Students with Learning Differences” Lawrence School, Broadview Heights, Ohio

Lawrence School is pleased to nominate Mr. Greg Donnellan, Head of Middle School, for consideration

of the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge’s 2020 Leavey Awards. Mr. Donnellan has been a

treasured member of Lawrence’s faculty for over 12 years (Since January 2008). At that time, he began

his work developing the music program at the Upper School (grades 7-12). He is a 2006 graduate of the

Conservatory at Baldwin-Wallace College with a degree in Music Education. In fall 2017, Mr.

Donnellan shifted to the role of Academic Coach, supporting teachers in their pursuit of engaging

lessons and educational excellence for all students. He was promoted to Head of Middle School (which

includes 82 students in grades 7-8; Lawrence serves 335 K-12 students overall) in August 2019.

In addition to his work as a music educator, Mr. Donnellan has always been passionate about

entrepreneurship and interested in ways to bring such a program to fruition at Lawrence Upper School.

Inspired by other programs such as the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, Junior Achievement and “Biz

Kids” on PBS, Mr. Donnellan, along with ReGinae Reynolds (Director of Student Activities at the

Upper School), decided to embark on designing an entrepreneurship program specifically for children

with learning differences who learn better via real-world, tactile, project-based learning methods. When

Mr. Donnellan and Ms. Reynolds began to research this program they encountered an even greater

challenge than they had anticipated: they soon realized there were no evidenced-based, entrepreneurship

program curricula that would meet the needs of Lawrence students (who have learning differences

including ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, executive functioning challenges and more).

There is ample research and data available which demonstrate the importance of entrepreneurial

programming and how such programming can benefit students with learning differences, but no “stand

alone” curricula that addressed the unique needs of Lawrence students. Mr. Donnellan decided to do

something about that, and soon became Project Director for this immense undertaking.

Mr. Donnellan’s overall goal of the Middle School Entrepreneurship Program is to provide Lawrence

students with hands-on introduction to entrepreneurship, but in a way that takes into account their

individual learning needs and styles. Teachers at the middle school level will also gain experience with

entrepreneurship concepts, 21st century skills instruction methods and emerging best practices in

education. Students will express their creativity, get “real-world” feedback on their product ideas, feel

part of a group, and gain valuable educational and entrepreneurial experience which will serve them well

in school and beyond.

With Ms. Reynold’s help and after much research, Mr. Donnellan launched the first “Middle School

Entrepreneurship Fair” in March 2017, a 3-day event where 7th

& 8th

grade students worked together to

design, market, and share their own product and business ideas. The response to the March 2017 3-day

event was universally positive, and Lawrence secured grant funding from Burton D. Morgan Foundation

(Hudson, Ohio) to pilot a larger program during the 2017-2018 school year. During that year, Mr.

Donnellan connected with regional resources to support the creation of an individualized and

differentiated program for students with learning difference. These resources included the Young

Entrepreneur Institute at University School (Shaker Heights, Ohio) and the Western Reserve Historical

Society (Cleveland, Ohio). WRHS provided Lawrence with customized, accessible PDF’s of primary

source documents featured in its Ohio Entrepreneurship exhibits for use with “Read and Write Gold”, an

assistive technology program which “reads” text out loud to students. Utilizing these local resources,

Lawrence created a modified curriculum for the students of Lawrence. That year, Lawrence also offered

an Entrepreneur Speaker Series, which engaged students and their families via four sessions featuring

local entrepreneurs and business leaders (http://www.lawrenceschool.org/student-life/young-

entrepreneurs-experience/entrepreneurship-lawrence).

During the school year, Lawrence 7th

and 8th

graders now explore four dimensions of entrepreneurship –

business planning, product development, marketing and sales – culminating in the Entrepreneurship Fair

in the spring, when students each have an opportunity to create their own product/service ideas, develop

and execute original business plans, make prototypes of their specific products and “pitch” their ideas.

Students have lessons in Brainstorming, Ohio Entrepreneurs & Business Planning, Product Pricing,

Financial Planning, Product Design and Product Fabrication & Design. After reviewing the judges’

scores and comments, an awards ceremony is held in the Upper School gym on the last day of the

program to honor those students with the highest scores in each of the above-referenced categories,

including “Top Honors Overall Award”. The entire entrepreneurship experience complements

Lawrence’s exceptional core curriculum.

Since the pilot year (2017-2018), Mr. Donnellan has expanded the Middle School Entrepreneurship

Program to include an Upper School Entrepreneurship Club (for students in grades 7-12) who have

experience or interest in starting their own business or a partnership with peers. The program also offers

enrichment trips to St. Edwards High School (http://www.sehs.net/entrepreneurship), Western Reserve

Academy’s Wang Innovation Center (https://www.wra.net/academics/wangcenter), University School

(https://www.us.edu/academics/young-entrepreneurs-institute), and Sears Think Box at Case Western

Reserve University (http://eengineering.case.edu/sears-thinkbox). These schools offer fabrication spaces

and multiple opportunities for collaboration, which provide Lawrence students with enrichment

experience and connection into the local entrepreneurship and business community.

Burton D. Morgan Foundation has been so pleased with its initial investment in Lawrence’s program

that it funded it again in both 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. Representatives from the foundation have also

attended the 3-Day Entrepreneurship Fair and one even served as a judge at the event. Part of the

foundation’s latest grant also provided seed money for no-interest “evergreen loans” for students to start

their own businesses.

Mr. Donnellan’s long term goals for this program include adapting the Middle School Entrepreneurship

Program Curriculum for use in the Lower and High School and train additional Lawrence faculty for this

purpose. Additionally, Lawrence is considering ways to formally publish this experiential, student-

driven curriculum for the purpose of sharing it with other public, parochial and/or private schools

serving children with learning differences. Mr. Donnellan has truly invested his heart and soul in this

program and Lawrence students, faculty and the special education community have- and will continue to

– benefit immensely from it.

Robert Fredette

“Lancerships”

Lamoille Union High School, Hyde Park, Vermont

It was the Fall of 2017 and our high school business program was offering what most others do:

Financial Literacy (required for all sophomores), Accounting, and an Entrepreneurship class, called

Business Startups. Students were enjoying learning about money and life. Our entrepreneurship class

followed a common curriculum: here’s how businesses are structured, organized and planned. The

standard business plan was the focal point and students presented their business ideas at the end. The

class offered personalization by allowing students to focus their ideas around areas of interest. This was

all about to change. That fall, Lori Lisai, our innovation coordinator, spoke with me about an

organization that she had become familiar with, called Real World Scholars, and that they provided

“seed” money to school business programs. Through her guidance, we took on the challenge of writing

the grant and were rewarded with $1,000. Our real journey was about to begin.

In the spring of 2018, we embarked on our first semester of “Lancerships,” a student business program

focused on students experiencing the complete startup process from product idea to development and

sales. A small group of nine students were on the maiden voyage of the journey, no flight map, just an

idea of the direction we were heading, not really fully understanding the weather ahead. Our first

businesses experienced the learning curves of generating and testing ideas, determining what pieces of

equipment they would need, and the dreaded financial calculations of how to make a profit on top of all

this. All of this was happening within a new classroom framework of freedom of choice and

responsibility, one that took some time for the students and the teacher to fully grasp. We experienced

lots of learning opportunities along that first semester, and when it was finished, we were still unaware

of what was ahead.

The fall of 2018 began as with the previous semester, 10 students with 4 returning from the previous

semester. The returning students and their established business were able to guide the new students.

During this semester we experienced our first “growth spurt”. Students planned and organized “dry

openings,” sales days, and presentations to school faculty and the school board. In particular, the Royal

Tees custom apparel business, began producing larger volumes of product to school groups, teams, and

staff. Their visibility, combined with the above efforts, lead to a surge in the popularity of the program

into the spring 2019 semester.

With 22 students and 7 businesses beginning to form, the spring of 2019 began with a running start. The

classroom was now filled to capacity, with students designing, producing and creating all kinds of

different products. We started to focus on what I call “authentic experiences:” students performing in

authentic arenas. This offers students the opportunity to practice the all important “transferable skills.”

From the local Executive Vice-President of Union Bank visiting and touring all the businesses to our

now routine school board visits, students receive authentic feedback from professionals. In addition, this

was the first semester where we created an event where the proceeds benefited the Lamoille County

United Way Program. During this semester, I began to grasp the concept of less teaching and more

coaching.

This past fall, the program has had similar numbers and I decided to partner with the business program

in our Technical Center, offering those students an opportunity to experience the project based learning

we offered in our entrepreneurship program. The students organized 8 businesses during this past

semester. We also embarked on our first food product, Lancer Bar. The students developed a recipe and

the ingredients were sold in a box to be made at your leisure. The team also formed a partnership with a

local business, Butternut Farm, who supplied us with the honey for the recipe. A portion of the proceeds

of this business benefited the Lamoille Community Food Share Program. In addition, we invited the

Winooski High School Business students to visit our program. During this day, Winooski students

signed up for one of our specific businesses, and our students taught them how they make their product

and run their business. This amazing experience of seeing students teaching other students what they do

really cemented the idea that what we are doing is working. One of the students said, “I was a little

nervous at first, but now after it's over, I really know how to make my birdhouses better.” I also had the

wonderful opportunity to present our program at the Entre-ed Entrepreneurship Forum in Lexington,

Kentucky. It was an amazing experience to share with others all the incredible things our students are

doing. A few weeks later, a student and I recorded our first ever podcast for Entre-ed. Our Royal Tees

business also experienced a first, where they participated as a vendor at the state wide physical

education conference this fall and presented to the entire attendees prior to the keynote.

As an educator, moving into this project based, hands-on learning approach to education has been one of

the most rewarding experiences I have had. It has transformed how we deliver and evaluate what

students know. I have tried to maintain my focus on creating opportunities for kids in whatever forum

we can and look for partners that can help us serve them. Through my experiences and observations,

there is no better tool for encouraging learning than by providing the most authentic platforms for

students to perform in.

Susan Howey

“Fan Faces”

Trombly Elementary, Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan

Trombly Elementary is a suburban school in Grosse Pointe Park, MI, just outside of Detroit. It has

been my home while I’ve taught 4th grade for the past 19 years. We are a small school with about

230 students in grades PreK-5. It’s a diverse school, comprised of students from many different

backgrounds. I’m a leader in the use of project based learning and incorporating educational

technology. I attend professional development regularly. While attending the SXSW EDU

conference, in March 2017, I met the Real World Scholars team and learned about EdCorps

(Education Corporations) and their belief that a student-run business focuses on real-world learning. I

was beyond inspired! So I founded our education corporation, Fan Faces, in the fall of 2017. Why

Fan Faces? Striving to be the “favorite aunt” has motivated me to make oversized photos of my

nieces and nephews, to cheer them on at their soccer & baseball games, swim meets, and

graduations! The kids and other spectators loved them, so I thought why not sell them!

My goals were to provide more authenticity and problem solving in what my students were learning.

I hoped students would “use it, change it, apply it”. Through our business, we’d focus on process

over content. I also sought to encourage new/innovative ways to connect with and give back to our

community. I believed that running the business would help strengthen the fabric of our classroom,

connecting the students and I to each other in a more profound way, while leveraging greater student

engagement and learning.

When presented with the idea of running a business within our 4th grade class, my students excitedly

voted yes! I reminded our class that smart people know when to ask for help, so I immediately called

Mrs. Durand. She’s been a local business owner for over 30 years, and her sons attended our

elementary. Mrs. Durand quickly agreed to be our business mentor!

My students and I were/are the co-owners of Fan Faces, so from the very beginning they have been

involved in every decision related to the business.We brainstormed a lot about what our products

might be, pricing, advertising, what to do with profits etc. We had important conversations about how

much the Fan Faces would cost to produce and what we could/should sell them for. Collectively, we

decided that at least 50 percent of our profits would be donated to local charities. The rest of the

money would be reinvested in the business or used to buy classroom supplies. Trademarks were also

an important conversation while deciding what we could and couldn’t sell.

Starting from scratch, my kids created our Fan Faces logo & came up with a tagline: “Cheering

People On is What WE Do”! We divided into teams, and began creating our product line, pricing,

samples, order form, accounting spreadsheet and website. We are grateful for all of the support from

Real World Scholars in creating our website, handling our banking, and holding our hands as the

EdCorps took shape. We started advertising with posters and writing scripts for the school’s daily

video announcement and produced our very first commercial, “Fan Face Friday”! (see video) Mrs.

Durand visited often and coached us in our pricing and marketing. My students lit up when talking to

her, because she treated them like the fellow entrepreneurs that they were.

A lot of thought, problem solving, and collaboration went into developing our new company. As we

got Fan Faces off the ground and orders started to come in, we split ourselves amongst the areas of

production, accounting, advertising, and customer service (we even had a student who dedicated

himself to quality control)! These roles ebbed and flowed as needed. Production involves a lot of

digital skills, and my students were soon Google Drive experts, importing photos, cropping,

enlarging and sharing docs. Whenever they ran into trouble, they turned to each other for help before

asking me. Working in teams allowed us to accomplish more and get things done better and more

quickly. Students practiced searching and shopping for supplies when we needed them, as well as

comparison price shopping and reading reviews. Together, we learned how to leverage social media

(Twitter) for advertising; the kids helped decide what photos and captions to post to help boost sales.

Students collaborated in writing pitches to introduce other classes to our business. We even designed

raffle tickets and sold them at lunch to help expose more people to our products. My team worked

overtime and sold Fan Faces at our school craft fair. They were so invested, that they loved

“working”! A student even took the time to write a Fan Faces jingle and turn our theme song into an

iMovie! (see video)

At Christmas, we’d reached $1,000 in sales! Along the way, we voted & decided to donate money to

the Michigan Animal Rescue League, COTS- an organization that aids the homeless, and the 5 year

old cousin of one of our co-owners, who was battling cancer. Each of these donations was

accompanied by a letter written by one of the Fan Faces’ co-owners. As the year progressed, we

found a rhythm to our production, advertising and accounting. We were invited to be honored at our

Board of Education meeting!

By the end of the year, we’d sold $2,500 worth of Fan Faces and donated $1,600 to local charities,

including a $1,200 end of the year donation to the Detroit Institute for Children’s Summer SLIDE

program. In my heart, I knew that Fan Faces was more than any of us had ever thought it would be;

we were all so proud. I tried to capture some of my student’s feelings & feedback through an exit

survey (see results). My students were definitely reluctant to leave the business behind, most wanted

me to move up to 5th grade, so we could stay together & continue to run Fan Faces. They felt quite

protective over our business and were not excited about the thought of new students taking over. I

took this as a great compliment about our business endeavor. As their teacher, I smile in thinking

about ALL they have learned, problem solved, and achieved...and they LOVED all of it. Why?

Because it was real, they were part of something bigger than themselves, and they felt good about

what they were doing. They weren’t learning for learning’s sake, they were learning to improve,

accomplish their goals, and help others.

So, how do you follow up a year where the students & our business exceeded all of my/our

expectations? Fast forward to Fall 2018. My new group of 4th graders began the year with questions

of, will WE get to do Fan Faces? I had already decided that we’d be voting about continuing to run

our own business; it wasn’t for ME to decide. There was a resounding yes, and so it was that Fan

Faces year 2 began. But how would we take the business in new directions and keep growing?

I decided that we needed to take the show on the road, do some “in-person selling”, and make more

connections to our community. It seemed like our local holiday craft bazaar fit the bill perfectly.

Before deciding to rent a booth, our team discussed the price ($40) and whether or not it was a good

investment. The team decided that we wouldn’t need very many sales to make our money back, so it

was worth the risk. We problem solved how we’d decorate our booth and created signage that told

customers we’d make Fan Faces to order on the spot! Our business mentor helped us role play talking

to customers for our 1st in-person selling event. On the Saturday of the craft fair, 21 out of my 25

students voluntarily spent between 1-3 hours working our booth! They loved it and gained amazing

skills in sharing our company with potential customers & practicing public speaking, with

confidence! My students’ only complaint, was that their shifts had not been longer! One customer

from the craft fair, Grandma Cathy, still orders from us 2 years later!

We continued making community connections by each student writing a letter to local business

owner. The students invited them to come and share a certain area of expertise (using social media,

pricing/sales, gaining repeat customers etc.) with our class. Several local owners visited Fan Faces

HQ and shared their story while fielding questions from the Fan Faces team. The owner of a local

bistro, gave us the idea for a new product, CupCake Toppers and offered to advertise for them in her

restaurant. Following that visit, the owner of a local dog bakery inspired up to sell PupCake Toppers,

marketed towards dog owners, and agreed to sell them from her store. We also learned from several

owners about loans, rent, overhead, and other things we hadn’t had a lot of experience with. It was

wonderful to see my students connecting with the owners of the stores they frequented, and to almost

feel like equals in discussing how to run a business with them. Problem solving with the owners &

seeing our products in their stores, has given my students even more confidence in their abilities to

get things done and make a contribution!

I’ll always remember one of my students who passed out Fan Faces business cards at her mom’s

marketing event! Another student filled his pocket with our business cards to pass out to teachers

during our field trip to the middle school! My kids were doing so much thinking and work at home:

making digital flyers, looking up prices, and handing out flyers. They were so truly invested that it

didn't stop with the dismissal bell. They also worked on the weekend or after school when we had to

catch up on orders! All of their enthusiasm and commitment helped us to form even stronger

classroom bonds than usual. Our team donated even more of their free time by volunteering to sell

Fan Faces at our Little League Opening Day event. They took several team orders and networked

with the booth next to us, who agreed to advertise for us in their screen-printing shop. It’s all about

connections and relationships!

Throughout the year we donated almost $2,000 to various charities, always decided on by the group,

and ended up with $3,000 in sales. No one could believe it. As 4th grade ended, this team was even

more reticent to leave the business, and the students expressed many concerns about giving their

business to someone else. The level of engagement and investment that our EdCorps has brought out

in my students is something I’ve never seen in 26 years of teaching. It’s not about the money; it’s

about making connections. My kids GET IT! Case in point: A student asked his mom to get an end-

of-the-year gift for my dog. She said sure, how about a gift certificate for a dog website? HE quickly

said NO, we have to shop local, the Bow Wow Baketique Dog Bakery supports Fan Faces, and we

have to support them! How many 4th graders do you know that would make a connection like that?

Now, we’re in the midst of running Fan Faces 3.0. The only thing I can really say is that watching my

students run their business together and learn from each other and our community is the single

biggest thing I’m proud of in my teaching career. Classroom entrepreneurship has convinced me that

the sky’s the limit for these co-owners!

Andy Wise

“Brand Building Through Instagram Social Experience”

Hempfield High School, Landisville, Pennsylvania

Instagram is the new Facebook. The new Twitter. The new king of social media. And because of this, it

is no surprise that our students are frequently engaged in Instagram and, along with them, businesses and

consumers are as well. This project, Brand Building through Instagram Social Experience, is a perfect

opportunity to connect with students in their space, help them to expand their business knowledge, and

even, as educators, learn a few things from them, all while using the one of the biggest marketing tools

available and providing our students with an educational social media experience. The goal of this

project is for students to become the experts on the city or town they are living in and through Instagram

build a social media brand around it. Participants will see a profitable business and the class vision of

how they can truly use Instagram to become even more successful. Once the students establish

themselves as “hub” of the city, followers will start looking to them for what is relevant in the area and

ultimately create an Instagram page that creates revenue through paid content. Provided for you are the

tools and templates that have been used to develop this plan. While all the necessary tools are included,

this project is unique in that educators using it can feel free to adjust and listen to their students’ ideas to

create their own prosperous Instagram pages and social media brand. After students participate in this

engaging experience, they will have the foundation to take on jobs and internships in social media

marketing. In addition to these tools, also included are tools and ideas for students to complete

internships in the field.

So why is Brand Building through Instagram Social Experience something you should be interested in?

Because it is an education experience that includes: Entrepreneurship, Branding, Data Analysis,

Community Connections, Teamwork, Communication, Collaboration, Student Choice, Real-World

Connections, Digital, Critical Thinking, Student Voice, Technology, Creativity, Inquiry-based Learning,

Conflict Resolution, Cross Curricular, and Citizenship.

This experience started in the Fall of 2016. A student approached me and asked if he could do an

internship with Jays Crab Shack, a company that I am very close with and often tie into classroom cases

and discussions. In talking with Jay, the founder of the company, he found that an area he was lacking

was social media. This area is an area where many small businesses and entrepreneurs do not have the

time or energy to devote to their businesses but one that if given attention can help the business grow

and become more successful. This is also an area where students are very savvy and can help to fill that

void in an internship capacity. My initial intern blazed the path and helped me to learn a good bit about

Instagram while watching him work. He built Jay’s Instagram page from 300 followers to now over

13,000 followers. He increased engagement and even helped bring new consumers to the restaurant. His

strategy worked, and continues to work, through high school and college interns!

During the next academic year another entrepreneur came into our school to share his story with our

class. Court Grabbers, a shoe technology company, had just been on Funderdome with Steve Harvey and

the entrepreneur mentioned that he was looking for help on his social media. We approached him about

our success with Jays on Instagram and he gladly accepted our help. Using similar strategies we had

another successful result with Court Grabbers.

In the Summer of 2018, my colleague who also teaches marketing approached me about working on a

simulation for the Fall of 2018 semester. After several days and numerous hours of brainstorming, I sent

back a full proposal to him declining the idea of a simulation and instead proposed the idea of

attempting to build our own brands using Instagram based on the geographic area where we live. The

plan was based on the research and development that had proven to be successful in the strategies that

were used by the interns to help market Jays Crab Shack and Court Grabbers. Thus, Brand Building

through Instagram Social Experience was born and to this date is more successful than even we could

have imagined.

We started off with a brainstorm that is explained in the included PDF slides. While initially we began

very basic, we have been able to build our brands into complex and innovative marketing platforms. We

have taken our cities and showcased many of the wonderful things they have to offer to their visitors and

residents. We now have substantial followers, tremendous engagement, and true believers in what we

are doing. In the Spring of 2019, we reached out and collaborated with Bloomsburg University and their

Honors Intro. to Business Professor and Class. They adopted and executed our plan successfully creating

a brand highlighting several wonderful things in the town of Bloomsburg, they were able to “sell” their

town! This project has been executed over three academic semesters at two academic levels by three

different instructors and has been successful for all stakeholders. The experience has been amazing and

although I am not sure what the next step is or will be, I anticipate the project will continue to evolve

and grow and become even more successful.

With regard to entrepreneurship and the Leavey awards, this project is innovative when looking at

content. Social Media and Instagram are a space where businesses are putting a tremendous amount of

effort and resource to acquire and engage customers. The project is relevant to the students as they are

being given the opportunity to implement strategies that are being utilized in the business world using a

platform that they are familiar with and interested in. Looking at audience there are two different

perspectives of that with this project. The students, as the audience, are engaged in a way that I have

never seen before. With creating and managing our platform they are stakeholders through the entire

process making this an innovative project for them as an audience of students. The students’ audience,

our Instagram page followers, are also engaged and are using the information we share with them to

make choices to support local businesses. They are learning about their cities and the businesses that

surround them because of our work in highlighting and marketing them. Instagram, as a program,

provides outstanding metrics for our students to evaluate to see how our work is performing. The

students plan and execute all elements on our page and can see through the metrics how innovate our

content is for their audience week to week. So far it has steadily been increasing.

Our project contributes in a meaningful way to the advancement and understanding of the private

enterprise system. The way that the project originated and was designed shows that based on what was

learned and implemented during the original internship, success, for both the businesses we have

collaborated with and well as the class project we are completing, has been achieved. Having an actual

brand helps students engage in real activity, real interactions and real conversations that are taking place

in the business world. All of these things help students prepare themselves for jobs and experiences

waiting for them after their educational journey is complete. Through this project students are learning

ways to advance and develop our class brand as well as the brands of the companies that our students

intern with using a marketing tool that is used by businesses around the world. This project is giving the

students an opportunity to see and understand how Instagram and social media are invaluable tools for

businesses.

The activities in this project demonstrate the strengths of the private enterprise most specifically the

strength of Instagram and social media and the role it plays in attracting consumers. Although it is a

small segment it is an incredibly powerful segment of the private enterprise system. By going through

the process of our project students can see the impact that strategic posts through our platform can have

on a business. Using web-based tools, our students can see the estimated value of each of our posts and

how that number has grown through the process.

When starting this project, I was unsure of what results we might achieve. It is now obvious to me that

this is a project that has great potential to evolve and continue to evolve as social media changes. In

growing and changing it is essential for our students and our project to adapt as we move forward. To

this point I would say that we have far exceeded where I thought we would be. Moving from a single

student doing an internship with no guidelines, to creating and executing internship guidelines, and then

ultimately to a full-fledged semester long class project being implemented two academic institutions on

three academic levels. It has been fast moving and truly motivating to me as an educator. It has

energized my students and their passion for business and marketing. Like with any business, it is

important for us to innovate and stay relevant.

Even with the amazing Instagram results we’ve seen aside; the success of this project comes with the

renewed interest and excitement the students have to learn more about marketing and the relevant role

they can play in impacting consumers through the work and time they invest in the project. From my

observations, and through discussions with my students in class and the interns that have been placed, it

is easy to see that all students involved have gained the skills and knowledge needed to navigate social

media as a marketing tool. They now understand how to utilize Instagram in the private enterprise

system and achieve the results they desire. I truly believe that the best way for students to learn is to be

given an opportunity to take what they are being taught and execute it. This project allows them to do

just that.

Check us out on Instagram @lancasterdaily, @BestofLanc, @bloominbloomsburg,

@jayscrabshackocnj, @courtgrabbers, @playgowns…….and hopefully many more clients to come!