SAS Middle School participated in Enterprise America

On May 9th through the 11th, 2016 the students of the SAS Middle School took a trip to the WCNY building on Fayette Street in Syracuse. While there, they participated in an amazing program called Enterprise America. This is an excerpt from WCNY’s website: 

Once in the city, students will apply the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and financial and civic literacy skills they have learned to run the city’s 14 businesses and City Hall. The students become business entrepreneurs and employees, consumers and citizens. They enact laws, elect a mayor and judge and decide whether or not to purchase employee medical insurance. The business owners visit the Enterprise America credit union to apply for loans to launch their “start-ups” while other students manufacture goods, such as pens, and offer services, including website design. Some students will become accountants, preparing invoices and paying bills; others will calculate energy usage in the city’s businesses and explore alternative energy sources, write stories and take photos for the city’s newspaper, and prepare orders and deliver supplies throughout the city. All the student employees will complete wellness surveys, cast votes on a real voting machine and oversee personal and business financial spending.Students were eager to participate in this endeavor. Several businesses turned a profit throughout our three days of attendance with the 5th, 6th, and 7th grades. This was our 2nd year attending this program and truly hallmarks our commitment to preparing our students for participation in a 21st century world!