MHS FBLA students engage middle schoolers through American Enterprise Project

Mundelein High School students participating in the American Enterprise Project, a Future Business Leaders of America competitive chapter event, visited Fremont Middle School on Feb. 14th to teach 8th graders about the five pillars of American Enterprise and about the values of being an informed and smart consumer.

MacKenzie Stewart, junior, and Jillian Hoffstadt, senior, are the leaders of the project, assisted by a committee of other FBLA members. Their visit to Fremont was part of their drive to educate students about the American capitalist economy.

The 8th graders were highly engaged and active during the presentation, especially during the interactive games which included a Kahoot, an online quiz website, Four Corners, an opinion based game, and a "Swat a Pillar" activity where students had to hit the square containing the correct answer with a fly-swatter.

"I really loved seeing how invested the 8th graders seemed in what we were teaching them. They really got involved once the games came around and they seemed entertained throughout our presentation and games," Xavier Greene, sophomore, said.

The presentation focused on the five pillars of the American Enterprise system and also talked about planned obsolescence, a complicated topic that the 8th graders were able to learn and understand. The MHS students also discussed what it meant to be a wise consumer and what values and practices that entails.

The American Enterprise committee was pleased to see that the students were eager to participate and answer questions and that the 8th graders were attentive and had a very positive attitude.

"I think on top of spreading valuable lessons toward personal finance, we also energized the 8th graders to really think about what we were presenting," Ilya Vynnyk, sophomore, said.

The MHS students hope to continue to educate all grade levels about the key values that form the base of our capitalist economy and promote interest about the American Enterprise and capitalism.