VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — It's never too early to inspire kids to become entrepreneurs.
Second graders at Red Mill Elementary School are starting early with creating their businesses.
Zosia Kepka, a second grader at Red Mill Elementary, tells News 3 she hopes to create a business that works with animals.
"My business is probably going to involve a lot of animals because I really like them, and I am really patient so that will help me too," said Kepka.
As a part of their school curriculum, students are learning about economics and how to generate revenue.
Over the course of the semester, teachers decided to find unique ways for students to learn how to distinguish between services and goods.
Now, the students are in the brainstorming phase of creating their own business or service that will help support a need in Virginia Beach.
Second-grade teacher Megan Tereshko tells News 3 this is all a part of the learning process for students.
"The second graders have it as a part of their curriculum. They have been tasked with creating a business that meets a need in our community. They are learning about goods and services. They are learning about capital and human and natural resources, and they are learning about how that all works together," said Tereshko.
As an effort to get more students excited about launching their businesses, the school hosted a business fair-inviting local business owners to chat with students about entrepreneurship.
More than 20 local businesses were in attendance and during the fair, students had the chance to ask questions about their business ideas.
Cynthia Johnston, Gifted Resources Teacher, tells News 3 it is important that we highlight students' talents early on in life.
"Fostering the talents and strengths the students have already or may not even know that they have is really important to set them up to be future-ready learners," said Johnston.
After visiting the different businesses, the hope is that students will be encouraged to become the next generation of "kid entrepreneurs."
And for Louie Kaufman, he tells News 3, he is excited to launch his recycling business so he can give back to his community.
"I want to start my recycling business so I can earn the money to like sell it to like or donate it to a charity," said Kaufman.
