Financial Literacy Foundation & SEED Public Charter School
Entrepreneurship Program
Thanks to the State Farm Youth Advisory Board, the students at SEED Public Charter School have a functioning school store. Over the course of the academic year, FLF instructors have helped SEED students develop the framework for how the school store would operate. Each day, FLF teaches Entrepreneurship at SEED, where students learn the basic concepts of how to run a business and apply those principles to developing and operating the SEED Store.
SEED PCS is a residential charter school where students live on campus during the week. SEED has a note program, where students accumulate SEED dollars based on positive behaviors. These SEED Dollars can then be redeemed for items in the school store. Because past school stores failed to provide merchandise the students wanted and students had to place orders for items that would be delivered several days later, many students would end the year with thousands of unredeemed SEED dollars. This eroded the impact of the SEED note program and resulted in a non-functioning School Store.
Working with FLF instructors, SEED students created a vision of what they wanted the school store to be. Students wanted a fully-automated system where SEED students would have identification cards with bar codes that could be swiped using a scanner to bring up student accounts. All merchandise in the score would have bar codes and the computer system would track students’ SEED dollars. The students wanted a brick and mortar store where they could see the merchandise for sale and buy it on the spot. They decided that merchandise should be scanned, the cost (in SEED dollars) would be automatically deducted from students’ account and students would get a receipt showing their SEED point balances. Eventually, the students wanted to add a website and integrate a dual system with SEED dollars and real dollars.
Funding from State Farm YAB has made the SEED students’ dream a reality. State Farm YAB has provided the SEED Store with a refrigerator with a glass front, shelving, ample inventory, computers, and a state-of-the-art hardware/software system.
On May 6, 2009, Maria Jackson of State Farm visited SEED for the Grand Opening of the SEED School Store. Below, Ms. Jackson is cutting the ribbon with SEED student Frank Person.
FLF instructors Michelle Carhart (far left) and Robyn Burnett (far right) pose with their students during the Grand Opening.
SEED Store employees serve the 7th grade girls during after-school hours.
Tamia Spells crosses off items that have been sold out.
FLF and SEED are grateful for all that State Farm YAB has done to help the SEED Store be successful. We also thank Maria Jackson for showing up for our events and providing support for the students.
For more information contact: Michelle Carhart, FLF Executive Director at 202.957.3735 or
michelle@finliteracy.org.
