April Newsletter: What motivates kids?

Wouldn't it be easy if all children (and adults!) were motivated by the same things? Well, the reality is that some kids are motivated by grades, some by recognition, some by money, and others want to see their impact on the world. The children motivated by grades are easy to engage. But if we want to reach all of the children, helping them become richly prepared for the needs of our ever-changing world, we need to take a more creative approach.

Consider the child who doesn't feel confident academically, but possesses talent artistically. How do you harness that energy, and offer a way for that student to learn 21st century skills? How can we use the natural motivators for that child to reach and inspire him?

The answer is in "covering your bases" by being creative in our offerings, keeping the children's motivators in mind. Programs and activities that reach multiple motivations become very valuable. If you manage to pull this off, you will be surrounded by engaged, excited students who will indeed achieve and succeed.

Pamela deWaal

Who isn't motivated by MONEY?
Social Entrepreneurs!

Many kids would rather make an impact than a profit. Social Entrepreneurship is a wonderful way to empower these children and allow them to make the contribution they would like to make to society.

What exactly is a "Social Entrepreneur?

If entrepreneurship refers to "creating a new venture", and social means "for the common good", then a social entrepreneur is one who creates a new venture for the good of all. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change.

Need an example? John likes to skateboard but the only place that he and his friends can ride is in front of the local stores. After being scolded, he recognizes the problem: there's nowhere that the kids ARE permitted to skate. He organizes a group of other kids and their parents. They create a name for their cause: Mission Skatepark. They brainstorm ideas to generate awareness of the problem and bring support to the solution they are promoting. They follow their vision until the town builds a skatepark for the kids to call their own.

Meet Hannacy, of 'Creative Spaces'

Walter T Bergen School TREP$

Hi my name is Hannacy. I'm 10 years old and I just participated in TREP$. My business was called Creative Spaces. My sister did the program last year and I was so excited for my turn!

I wanted to make more than one product and do things that were creative. A lot of my items included using buttons. My mom is a huge button collector and I had a huge choice to select from. I wanted to make things that were unique and would make a private space fun.

My products were bookmarks with buttons, button flowers, scrapbooks of course with buttons, and to get away from all those buttons I decided to make grass heads, which my cat really loved. Oh I almost forgot, funny pencil erasers too.

My favorite part of TREP$ was planting the seeds for my grass heads. It only took 4 days for them to sprout and than they really went wild. The biggest challenge I faced was market day and making sure I gave back correct change to my customers.

I would like to continue selling some of my product to friends, family and neighbors and it would be fun just to make them for gifts too.

During the market many people commented that I was really creative and had unique different products. They loved my crazy grass heads and I sold out of them before the market was over. TREP$ was a good experience and it was lots of fun counting my money afterwards!

Click here to see more bright young entrepreneurs like Hannacy, and learn about the businesses they created.

Get your Free TREP$ Gift-Bag	You're Invited! There's no better way to learn about the program TREP$, than to attend a TREP$ Marketplace. Drop in on April 23rd from 7-8:30pm at the Westbrook School TREP$ Marketplace in West Milford, NJ! Visit the TREP$ booth and we will be happy to show you around and answer your questions.
Click here to register! Click here for directions!