HARRISBURG, N.C. — A North Carolina charter school is spotlighting how hands-on lessons in financial literacy help students build real-world money skills, culminating with National Entrepreneurship Week.
A.C.E. Academy charter school serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade.
The school’s annual Entrepreneurship Week features guest speakers and a public vendor fair showcasing student-run businesses.
Shawn Smalls is an entrepreneurship director at A.C.E. Academy and founder of the Young Moguls Club.
Made up of fifth- to eighth-grade students, Smalls said Young Moguls is helping young people turn interests into businesses.
“We ask them what are the things they like to do,” Smalls said. “We put our brains together to [support building a product] and put it out to the market to sell to the rest of the people.”
Smalls said students in the entrepreneurship program are learning how to budget, save and launch businesses designed to prepare them for future careers and financial independence.
“Learning how to become entrepreneurs and investing and budgeting, all the intricacies of learning how to adult,” Smalls said.
According to the Council for Economic Education, access to financial education is expanding nationwide, though gaps remain in preparing students with real-world money skills.
Smalls said students learning investing, budgeting and entrepreneurship fundamentals is helping develop confidence in money management skills.
“Teaching financial literacy early helps students connect classroom lessons to real life,” Smalls said. “Financial literacy is key.”
Smalls said connecting academics to real-world applications can improve educational and life outcomes.
“Then these kids become better students, better people, but they also see, hey, I can grow up now and become the entrepreneur I always wanted to be,” Smalls said.
Parent Charris Torrence has two daughters in Young Moguls, eighth- and fifth-grade levels.
“Made such a difference in who they are just as young people,” Torrence said. “They take a lot of ownership over their businesses. They’re more responsible, more motivated. It’s shaping who they’re becoming as young women.”
Torrence said the program is shaping responsibility and financial awareness at home with school lessons sparking conversations about saving and investing.
“Puts them leaps and bounds ahead of other young people their age,” Torrence said.
“Even my husband and I, it’s like [we] reevaluate our financial decisions because with the topics they come home [with] kind of speaking about, it made us look into stocks and investing,” Torrence said.
Students said launching their own businesses has helped them better understand how money works.
Eighth-grader Kaylee Lansdown runs a business called “Floral Fantasies,” creating handmade bouquets and flowers designed to last.
“My inspiration was my mom, her first name is Daisy,” Lansdown said. “I love to give her flowers, but those flowers always die, so I thought about giving her permanent-type flowers.”
Lansdown said support from Young Moguls leaders helped her bring this concept to fruition, while teaching her financial knowledge and skills she can carry on into adulthood.
“I’ve learned about profit, inflation, tariffs and how to reasonably price my products,” Lansdown said. “I feel really confident.”
Seventh-grader Kaiden James operates “Kapped Out,’” selling custom hats.
“My motivation was my dad, I grew up watching him wear hats,” James said.
Without Young Moguls, James said it would’ve been difficult to launch his idea. He now has tools to grow this business while strengthening his understanding of financial literacy.
“I learned once you get a lot of money, you don’t spend it all quickly. You have to save to invest, and then you just keep doing it,” James said.
Smalls said the school is seeing students flourish from the program, long after graduating from the charter school.
“What I’ve seen is that once the kids leave here at A.C.E. Academy, they keep building and building,” Smalls said.
North Carolina implemented an economics and personal finance course requirement for high school students, beginning during the 2020–21 academic year, part of a broader push to improve financial capability statewide.
For now, school leaders say programs like Young Moguls are helping fill financial literacy gaps by giving students hands-on experience long before graduation.
“You have to learn this very young,” Smalls said.
A.C.E. Academy’s annual Entrepreneurship Week is featuring local speakers, many entrepreneurs preparing youth for the ins and outs of launching of a business.
Young Moguls will host the vendor fair on Thursday, Feb. 19, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., on the charter school campus.
The fair is open to the public.
Community members will have the opportunity to purchase the students’ products at the event.
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