Spring 2004

Program has middle school students buying into business

By Marilyn Idelman Soglin

Ingredients: 18 Haven Middle School seventh graders, four Northwestern University seniors and one Northwestern graduate, The Louis and Saerree Fiedler Hillel Center at Northwestern.

Directions: Mix together once a week during the school year.

Result: A successful program called Buying Into Business.

In the fall of 2003, four Northwestern seniors — Peter Custer, Nicole Harsch, Marisa Lattanzi and Stewart Lynn — and Northwestern alumnus Adam Lurie launched an after-school business program at Haven Middle School in Evanston. This pilot program is a model based on a smaller-scale version Lurie created during the 2002-03 school year.

While at Northwestern, Lurie worked at Haven with Special Education students as part of the America Reads work/study program. He saw the success of a small business project he conducted with the then-sixth grade students and thought more could be done. “I wanted to encourage early business skills and conversations between the young people and their parents,” Lurie said. “I’m excited about the potential,” he added.

Today, as Lurie works in the Development Program at Northern Trust Company in Chicago, he is responsible for raising money for Buying Into Business, maintaining ties with Haven and the Evanston community and ensuring continuation on the program.

Lynn runs the day-to-day operations of Buying Into Business while majoring in Mathematical Models in Social Sciences. “We investigated Junior Achievement as a model for the program, but we wanted to use more games and activities,” Lynn said.

The Haven students meet once a week for an hour-and-a-half after school with the Northwest-ern students. The four instructors organize lesson plans with important key words and concepts to help the Haven students eventually start and manage their own business.

Lynn said they use real life examples. “We ran hypothetical concession stands at a mock football game where the students could set prices and quantities of certain products. We gave them information on the weather and projected attendance figures. Then, we ran a regression and analyzed how each student would have performed using key words like market size, revenue, cost, profit and competition. This lesson was entertaining, engaging and educational,” Lynn said.

Currently, the Haven students are working on in-depth business plan proposals that will be presented to an “Investor Board” to request funding up to $500. Lynn said the students are using the 30 business terms and concepts they have learned in Buying Into Business to create their business plans.

Knowing that the Northwestern students running Buying Into Business will graduate in June, Lurie approached the Louis and Saerree Fiedler Hillel Center at Northwestern to create a pipeline of college students so that the program will continue. David Newman, director of programming at Hillel, said, “This is a great way to get Hillel’s name out to the community and to connect Northwestern students to community service opportunities,” Newman said.

Northwestern’s Hillel is one of 30 designated Weinberg Tzedek Hillel campuses. This international public service effort empowers college students in meaningful public service and encourages creative thinking surrounding issues of social justice.

Through word-of-mouth and a Website created by Northwestern student Carey Tischler, Buying Into Business has already raised $2,000 from private donors and the business community, including Northern Trust.