Wrapping Up Our First School and What we Learned

Today’s generation is extremely fortunate to grow up with endless opportunities and the internet at their fingertips. Still, each year, millions of students go into middle school and high school with no idea of the opportunities they have. Uninformed of the benefits that hard work will bring them, students aren’t motivated to strive for success or pursue new heights in their academic careers. This is where Elevate the Future comes in. Upon recognizing that an immense amount of students were apathetic and unaware of their opportunities, we created Elevate the Future to inspire young students to pursue excellence.

This was the final week of our business program at Dilworth Elementary School in San Jose, California. We taught the students about business plans to round up the course. Our team not only taught the various components of a business plan but also how to plan the resources, utilities, and funding necessary for a business. It felt ecstatic to see the students pick up new topics quickly and become immersed in the program. The students were having fun learning about material they wouldn’t normally learn about, and it was heartwarming.

After the lesson, we had the students split into groups to come up with an idea for a product, and write a business plan for the product. Their business plans had to include a summary of the business, a value proposition, a marketing plan, and a summary of finances. This activity pushed them to think creatively and thoughtfully. They came up with amazing ideas from a driver safety mechanism that warns drivers of impending crashes to an eco-friendly solar-powered bike company. This activity really pushed students to their creative limits and allowed them to explore ideas that they were genuinely interested in and construct a business around them.

The last couple of weeks have been defining. This week we concluded our business program at Dilworth Elementary and are happy to report it a success. After reflecting on our attempt at teaching business the previous year, we were prepared exceptionally and were in control of the class throughout the program. In hindsight, We feel that we have made phenomenal improvement. After reviewing the feedback we received, we have learned about our strengths and weaknesses. With every experience we gain, we will continue to improve our program; I am optimistic that we will continue to expand our influence and inspire students around the globe.

The feedback we receive from parents is what we use to motivate ourselves to work hard to spread our mission. A few of the testimonials we have received are included below.

"What I learned from EMBA, now you make my son understand in just 5th grade. You lead the program step by step, very organized with a large scale. You will be successful in the future. The content and concepts you provided are useful and you make them easy to understand. My son hears the TV news talking about inflation, capitalism, socialism or communism, which he initially ignored, and he pays attention. I am glad about the change you made on him."

- Parent

“Thank you to the entire team of Elevate the Future for giving our children a wonderful learning experience. The whole course was very organized and concepts were taught in a way for kids to understand. You also did a great job of communicating via email and gave parents an understanding of the whole course. My child enjoyed each of the sessions as learning was made simple and fun. High-level concepts of business and finance were scaled down to a child's level and our child has been discussing the various economic systems around the world."

- Parent