Shown with their yellow and white “Scrap Bag” project, created from plastic, an old buckle, some elastic, and a button, are:  Front row, left to right:  Melissa Magnani,  Erica Mengouchian,  Gladine Vallon, and Jenn.   Back row, left to right:  Senia Mata, Tess Maloney, and Grace Cho.

On Friday, I had the pleasure of once again participating in an annual Long Island mentoring program called Girls Going Places. Young women from local high schools are invited for an  introduction to entrepreneurship and to the basics of achieving  financial independence. Guardian Life Insurance sponsors the event.

The girls are assigned to tables of 8 or 10. At each table is a mentor–a woman business owner who talks to the girls about her own experiences.  During the day, the girls participate in several games. They also speak with the mentors, who move around to different tables, at some point.

One game the girls play is called “Product in a Box.” The girls at each table get a cardboard box filled with assorted junk–e.g., fabric scraps, broken pieces of plastic, buttons, scotch tape, a cardboard toilet paper roll, a few paper clips, etc.

The girls work together to create a “product” from their particular collection of junk. They also develop a “business plan”–e.g., target audience, the price they would charge, etc. Each group presents its product to everyone.

These are the girls of Table 10. In front of them is “The Scrap Bag,” part of their cleverly conceived “collection of inexpensive, one-of-a-kind handbags and accessories to be made of donated, recycled materials and marketed to teens.”

It was a lot of fun. Here’s wishing all of these girls much success!

Filed under: Teen party ideas, Uncategorized