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Sage Hill Juniors Mentor 5th, 6th Graders at Anaheim Nonprofit
Three Sage Hill juniors have teamed up with an Anaheim-based nonprofit to inspire and coach children on how to create their own business plans.
Shiksha Anand, Amy Qin and Sarah Shu recently visited Higher Ground Youth & Family Services, an organization supporting children who need after-school programs in a safe and friendly environment, to meet fifth and sixth graders and teach them how to make a business plan. The Sage Hill students walked their mentees through a business plan template with a mission statement, product list and material list.
Under the umbrella of their Service Learning project, Rising Business Consultants, the three girls wanted to provide a free educational opportunity that would simulate a business environment.
“We decided it would be a fun experience for the kids to go through a simulation to create their own business and pitch it at the end of the program,” Shiksha said.
While stuck at home during the pandemic, Shiksha launched Penplatter, a small baking business. The experience taught her the challenges teenagers face in trying to balance being both students and entrepreneurs without support from their peers.
The Sage Hill students asked their mentees to think about potential businesses based on their interests including origami, video games, painting and sports broadcasts.
“Working with them was super fun because they have ideas you would never think of and just watching them smile and be happy really warms our hearts,” Amy said.
Rising Business Consultants’ goal with these sessions is to have the elementary students pitch their businesses in a mock start-up fair early next year and eventually create functional products they can sell.
“The thing I enjoyed most about working with them was having them come up with the idea. All of their products and services were based on things they enjoyed and spread that joy to others,” Sarah said.
The trio plan to build Rising Business Consultants into a Sage Hill club to share volunteer opportunities with other students. They will hold an interest meeting for fellow students in January.
A longer-term goal is to work with freshmen and sophomores at other Orange County high schools who already have a foundation in business.
Shiksha is interested in pursuing a Biochemistry degree and minoring in Business, Amy plans to study finance or data science and Sarah is considering various STEM disciplines.
Gabbi Romero, a sixth grade operations lead at Higher Ground, praised the Sage Hill students for successfully engaging the elementary students with a small business-oriented lesson.
"The group of students had a well thought out activity,” Romero said. “It pushed our kids to work together in resourceful and creative ways, while also having realistic goals toward their ideal company.”
Sage Hill School
Sage Hill School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship programs, and athletic and other School administered programs.