YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS; ANNA SCHOOL CHILDREN `MAKE IT AND MARKET IT'

Paulette Aronson, left, watched students Jeremy Duty and Beth Wetzel make collage pins.

Melissa Watkins applied glue to her collage pin.

This collage pin was made by Chelsie Mowery.

ANNA, Ill. -- Most students learn about the marketplace in the classroom. For a fifth-grade class from Anna, Ill., however, the marketplace is the classroom.

The 24 students in Paulette Aronson's art and gifted program aren't spending all of their free time playing soccer, riding bikes or mastering video games. Instead, they're part of "Make It, Market It," a project which has proven to be a profitable venture for its participants.

The project started as an after-school program for gifted students. Aronson, an award-winning artist, decided to focus not just on creative arts skills but on marketing skills as well.

The students involved in the program attend Davie Elementary School in Anna but participated in the after-school program at Lincoln School.

"We wanted to demonstrate that artists need business sense as well as arts and crafts abilities," said Aronson, who realizes the importance of these lessons. She teaches both art and gifted programs in the Anna school district, and sees a strong correlation between art ability and other talents.

The trick was to find a way to relate that to active 10- and 11-year-olds. Aronson hit upon the idea of using pin backs to create unique paper jewelry. The students loved it.

As the project progressed, the class began to discuss -- in business terms -- what they were doing and how it related to actual business.

"We discussed retailing and everything just fell into place from there," Aronson said. Besides learning the basics of retailing in a competitive marketplace, students also learned how to make paper jewelry for an assembly line process without sacrificing craftsmanship. "The students learned that it's important to make products so they don't fall apart," she said.

The jewelry-making project already has earned students their entrepreneurship wings. They have marketed their products in a number of Southern Illinois marketplaces, including the Midwest Harvest Arts Festival in Carbondale, the Union County Fall Color Festival, which has sales outlets at Anna, Cobden and Dongola, and the school district's own fall festival.

In the process, students have learned a lot of business sense. They maintain their own little account books, keeping tabs on their business expenses, sales and profits. "They have also learned about discounts," said Aronson. "In some cases, jewelry that didn't sell during the first or second show was discounted and sold at the third show."

In some cases, students who could not attend a show paid a 10 percent commission to other students to sell their merchandise.

"We're talking about consignment now," Aronson said. "But you don't always get your money right away by placing items on consignment. That's something the class will have to consider."

Meanwhile, members of the class are looking forward to the school district's two spring arts festivals, scheduled in April and May.

"At this point the students have paid for their supplies and have purchased additional supplies to build up their inventory," Aronson said.

Although the after-school program is basically over for the class, students still prepare new jewelry during breaks and lunch hours.

During a half-hour session Thursday, Beth Wetzel, Jeremy Duty, James Houseman and Melissa Watkins were busy putting some finishing touches on jewelry for the school's first spring festival.

Watkins, who has served as a sales person at a couple of the shows, says she helped people match colors of their purchases. "I even bought one of my own pieces of jewelry," she said. Watkins added that she likes meeting people.

Wetzel was one of the big sellers.

"I sold all of my jewelry," she said. "I even made some of the jewelry pieces for Christmas presents. I enjoy creating new designs for the pinups."

Duty had a goal with his new-found business, and eagerly accepted his earnings.

"I wanted to make enough money to buy a new goose call," said the young goose caller, who has entered some goose-calling contests. He netted enough to purchase his new goose call.

The cost of manufacturing is minimal -- pin backs, glue, bits and pieces of paper, beads and glitter.

The finished product is about 2-by-2 inches." The students have devised a special 4-by-4-inch display board to show their products.

The jewelry is placed on a color paper back, then pinned to the display board.

"Students often work on more than one piece of jewelry at a time," said Aronson. Prices for the jewelry range from $1 to $5.

The project is not only for art students, said Aronson. "We have a number of students involved in other academic projects and athletics."

One of the most difficult lessons the children learned, Aronson said, was cleanup.

"Some students left sloppy areas one day, so I told them if they didn't do a good job cleaning they would have to pay a 10 percent janitorial fee -- just like they would if they hired someone to clean up a business."

The work areas have been impressively clean since.