Our Fall trimester Social Entrepreneurship class began and ended with microloans!  Because we received SO many Kiva loan repayments over the summer, there was enough money in our SCH Kiva Lending Team account for our students to loan a total of $250 to Kiva borrowers around the world!  It was a great way to kick off our course explorations: a deeper dive into microfinance, country research, product research and creation, pricing and marketing ~ preparing for the KIVA Marketplace to be held at our school Book Fair.

Handmade products included purses and scrunchies, headbands and barrettes, original illustrations made into notecards and keyrings, magnets and slime.  Their Kiva Market earned the students over $300 in sales - and, after subtracting the cost of supplies, deposited enough in our Kiva account to make a second round of microloans to ten different Kiva borrowers!

We've been busy this year hosting KIVA Fairs and KIVA Marketplaces on both campuses - for families and students - to earn money to fund our micro-loans through Kiva.org.
Students have created a variety of products, which they have marketed and sold to our school community:

• headbands

• slime

• tye-dye t-shirts

• fidget spinners

• tic-tac-toe games

• notecards

• original picture books

• duct tape flower pens

• abstract art

• and lots more!

Photos are posted on our media page.  Here's where our KIVA Team lending stands - as of March 2018:

Our 5th grade boys and girls worked in product teams to create Business Plans for the items they want to sell at their Kiva Market Fair.  They'll receive microloans to purchase any supplies they need and will pay back the loans from their sales. The rest of the money they earn - their profits - will go to make loans to borrowers around the world on www.kiva.org through our SCH CEL Kiva Lending Team.

Check out our Kiva Skype Voicethread videos on the HIME page to hear what some of our students have to say about what makes Kiva.org unique and special! 

Students reflected on all our learning and discussion about microfinance, entrepreneurs, business and Kiva to voice their thoughts...

We prepared for our SKYPE with Jessica Hansen, Kiva's Education Director, by brainstorming questions: What are we still curious about how Kiva works? How does the loan repayment work? When did Ms. Hansen hear about Kiva and is she a Kiva lender? Has she met any of her Kiva borrowers?  We were ready with all of these great questions and more...

The SKYPE was a success - and we learned a lot about Ms. Hansen, Kiva loans and Kiva borrowers!

Now that our 5th graders understand how microloans and Kiva work AND have explored borrowers and their businesses on Kiva.org - they're now committed to earning money to loan through Kiva AND to educating our school community about our project. 

They've been brainstorming a variety of ways to earn money - from hosting a Kiva Fair to creating products for a Kiva Marketplace to running sports tournaments - and then exploring the feasibility of each proposal...

We've spent this last week exploring Kiva.org ~ learning how it uses microfinance to help people around the world: people who don't have access to traditional banks but are smart, hardworking, responsible entrepreneurs who need these small loans to grow their businesses so they can support their families and send their children to school.

Students checked out the borrower profiles on Kiva.org and learned about what countries are under-resourced and what kinds of businesses Kiva borrowers engage in...

After reading the true story of how Kojo and his Mother lifted themselves, along with their village in Kenya, out of poverty with "one small loan" - we discussed microfinancing , how it works and how it especially impacts under-resourced countries where people don't have access to traditional banking services.

Our CEL Social Entrepreneurship students worked in groups to explore and then present concepts related to loans vs donation, poverty and resources, microfinancing and Kiva.org.

Stay tuned for news about what our new round of Social Entrepreneurship/Kiva students have been up to...

Our involvement with Kiva and microlending continues - even after our Social Entrepreneurship courses have ended for the year!  Students from both classes have voluntarily met over lunch time several times to learn about their Kiva lona repayments and to choose NEW Kiva borrowers to re-invest in.  

Our 5th grade students LOVE the idea that once the Kiva borrowers that they originally invested in -- 16 borrowers, in all -- repay their loans, that money goes back into our SCH Team Kiva account and they get to choose even more borrowers to lend to!  They are now up to investing loans to 22 borrowers in just a few months time!

Our 5th grade Social Entrepreneurship students are enjoying this opportunity to make a continuing impact on the lives of Kiva borrowers around the world by investing in their businesses and helping their families.

Students checked on their KIVA borrowers and took some time to reflect on their experiences and learning in the Social Entrepreneurship class. Most of the students are interested continuing their connection with KIVA and their borrowers, so we'll be meeting once a month as a "KIVA Club" to track their loans and re-invest their loan repayments. Here are excerpts from their reflections.

After completing their country research, students determined which countries they wanted to loan to and explored KIVA borrower profiles in those countries. They allocated their $700 earnings over twelve borrowers across five continents with businesses ranging from agriculture, to sewing, to market stores and education. 

The KIVA Karnival was a success! The Social Entrepreneurs sold out of most of their awesome handmade items: clay animals, clay charms and key rings, decorated journals, snow globes, dict tape wallets and tulip pens, cell phone cases PLUS lots of baked goods and 20 pizzas!  The students also organized a raffle, book sale, face painting, giant connect four and other games!  They earned over $700 to loan through KIVA.

The KIVA Karnival will be held on Feb 23rd after school. While presenting info about KIVA and their Karnival at assemblies, the students have been busy creating their handmade items to sell and planning games, activities and food for this special event.  They hope to earn lots of money to lend through Kiva.org.  Students also wrote Thank You notes to Ms. Hanson at KIVA Headquarters for Skyping with them.

Students continued their Kiva Karnival marketing efforts while preparing presentations on KIVA and microfinance to feature at the lower school and middle school student assemblies. STudents emailed division heads and planned different presentations to raise awareness and share their learning about KIVA and microloans. They created KIVA displays and flyers.

Jessica Hansen, Education Director at Kiva, generously shared her time to Skype with my current and first trimester Social Entrepreneurship students.  Our Skype with Ms. Hansen was both informational and inspirational!  Ms. Hansen and her colleagues shared how they got involved with Kiva and their thoughts on the amazing impact that Kiva and microfinancing has on the lives of people all around the world! Our students had so many questions - we ran out of time!  

Students also spent time considering the feasibility of their KIVA Karnival project ideas - striving to determine what products and activities would be most effective in earning money to loan through Kiva. Stay tuned for our outcomes!

We've spent this week tweaking our plans for the KIVA Karnival and tweaking our KIVA informational materials to be sure we include significant aspects of Kiva.org we want to be sure to emphasiize to our community:

We're also VERY EXCITED because we'll be Skyping with the Education Director from KIVA, Jessica Hansen - and we're exploring Ms. Hansen's AMAZING Kiva Lending profile and developing questions - in case we get time to ask!  We have LOTS of quesions - and are also glad that our first trimester Social Entrepreneurship will also be joining us! 

In addition to continued brainstorming in our "KIVA Karnival" event to earn money to loan, we are embarking on a multi-pronged marketing campaign as a way to INFORM our school community about Kiva.org and INSPIRE them to become involved and support our efforts.  Our Social Entrepreneur students are working in groups collaborating and creating:

• presentations for assemblies in our lower, middle and upper school divisions
• interactive bulletin boards and displays
• flyers to hang and slideshows to email

We spent this week exploring ideas on how to earn money to invest in borrowers through KIVA.org.  We used Google Forms to  survey student interests and talents and then brainstorm possibilites for special events, businesses and activities to raise money.