In a time where entrepreneurial skills are becoming increasingly valuable in today’s competitive workforce, Bulldog seniors Sahasra Jonnalagadda, Roshini Mantena, and Rashmi Mantena have founded an educational campaign for their Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) American Enterprise project called InnovateUSA.
InnovateUSA seeks to bridge the gap between classrooms and the business world by empowering students of all ages to learn about the business enterprise system and economic principles. Many mornings before school, the InnovateUSA team visits younger students across the county including up to three middle schools and eight different elementary schools.
“It’s fun working with them,” Jonnalagadda said. “Usually, younger students don’t know anything about business, really. It’s nice to have a way for them to learn about it sooner rather than waiting until high school or college to take business classes.”
Unless students are taking business-oriented electives, there isn’t much in the core curriculum that provides basic business knowledge for real-world application. By giving presentations and organizing fun activities for younger students to get excited about, the InnovateUSA team is tackling this issue, head on.
Not only does the campaign engage with students before they enter high school, it also provides ways for high school students to get involved. InnovateUSA also hosts workshops for students often after school at a local library.
“We just do fun things [at the workshops],” Jonnalagadda said. “One time we did a Shark Tank event, and we got actual business owners to be the investors.”
The campaign has recently launched their new podcast, “InnovateUSA’s Innovator Podcast,” on Spotify. On the podcast, InnovateUSA interviews local business owners for listeners to hear about their experiences and any advice they have on starting a business. The InnovateUSA team hopes to grow this podcast beyond the three episodes they have produced so far, all of which have performed well.
When it comes to the future of InnovateUSA, the team is working on growing their podcast, expanding to visit more schools, and competing at the State Competition for FBLA. Their goal for the state competition is to show the impact the campaign has had on its community and to place in the American Enterprise project category and win the opportunity to compete at the national level.
For more information, check out the InnovateUSA Instagram @innovate.usa!
