While many campers this summer are tying square knots, paddling canoes or weaving friendship bracelets, a growing number are instead drawing up business plans and generating personal budgets. At entrepreneur and finance camps from coast to coast, business is open.
Christian Burch, age 10, was one of 10 children sponsored by the Greater Scott County Chamber of Commerce in Indiana to attend BizCamp for nine to 11-year-olds, run by Junior Achievement in Louisville, Kentucky. The children were assigned to run a fictional business for a week and participated in a role-playing game to try to pay off a bank loan and make the company profitable.
Christian was assigned to sell ads for his own radio station. At first, he wasn't sure what he was getting into, but he said he ended up liking the program better than the basketball camp he attended the following week.
"I loved doing my job and seeing what it would be like when I grew up," he said. And "we learned to use our money wisely and not spend it all on candy."
His mother, Rhonda Burch, reported that Christian's first request after she picked him up from camp was to go to a bank and open a savings account.
Jeffrey Solomon, executive director of the National Camp Association, sees the rise in business camps as part of a trend toward camp diversification. While outdoors camps are still popular, more camps are appearing that focus on the arts, community service, technology, academics and other specialties.
According to the association, the total number of summer campers has risen from 5 million to more than 6.5 million over the last five years.
Some of the business and money camps focus on how to start a small venture, while others look at career exploration, global monetary markets or personal financial literacy. Most sessions last one week.
At another BizCamp session, 100 children aged 12 to 15 spent their week focused on civics, finance and business. Campers practiced job interview skills and met local business people. They were asked to create a budget for a hypothetical family. The youngsters also went on a virtual Internet shopping spree and then learned how long it would take to pay off the debt they incurred.
"When a teenager sees it will take years and years to pay off a small debt because they are making minimum payments, it really shows them what interest is all about," said Shannon Wendt, the camp's director.
Wendt said her team tried to make everything as hands-on and engaging as possible.
"We didn't want it to feel like school at all, so there were lots of games and contests, but in the end they gained a lot of financial know-how," she said. Nationally, Junior Achievement is teaming up with a variety of organizations to reach 102,000 children this summer with its programs.
Joline Godfrey, chief executive of Independent Means Inc, a financial education group in Santa Barbara, California, has seen more demand for her group's books, board games and camps each year.
"Children and teens today may be savvy shoppers, but they are less prepared to manage their own budget and create their own financial safety nets," she said. She has found that more families are using outside resources to raise financially thoughtful and competent children.
Godfrey said she thought parents also were beginning to treat their child's interest in business the same way they would treat an interest in sports and music.
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