Summer break is almost over and students in the UALR Children International Program will have lots of news to share with their friends.

They spent four weeks this summer in the Mind Your Own Business Summer Camp focusing on literacy and business. Mornings were spent reading books and writing reviews for their newsletter. In the afternoon they got down to business. The young entrepreneurs formed their own companies, manufactured their products, and sold their wares at the Little Rock River Market.

Victoria and Jakayla were selling hand-painted bookmarks.

Takerean and her colleagues were eager to show their “very special” necklaces.

Takerean explained, “They are made by a technique called Raku. We painted them and then put them in a 1,800 degree kiln to fire them. Raku is Japanese for a very happy accident.”

Other “companies” sold wire people cards, wind chimes, crazy coasters, and eco-friendly photo frames made from newspapers.

All of the students were passionate about their “businesses” but one young man stood out from the crowd. Malik took a few moments share with me what he learned this summer. “You gotta have good leadership to have a good business. You have to learn how to pay your employees, and you have to be nice to people or they might quit their job.”

At the end of the day the summer campers tallied up their earnings – an impressive total of $1,600. They donated $200 to the Rice Depot to help feed needy children and the rest was deposited into the UALR Children International Scholarship Fund. In just a few years, some of these students will get help with their college education from the seeds they planted in summer camp.

For more information about the UALR Children International program visit ualr.edu/children.