Three Oxford High School students have spent the last few months teaching fifth-graders about the importance of entrepreneurs in society. That project came to an end a few weeks ago when those fifth-graders presented their business proposals to a panel of judges, and their three high school teachers were blown away with how well they did.

OHS seniors Joey Farmer and Anna Ibarra as well as junior Jack Cady did the project as part of their DECA (Distribution Education Clubs of America) class and will take their project’s findings to a statewide DECA competition in April with hopes of qualifying for the international competition.

To teach younger Wildcats about entrepreneurship and business skills, the three students worked with three fifth grade classes: one from Oxford Elementary School, one from Clear Lake Elementary and one from Lakeville Elementary. The young students learned to become competitors of brands they love like Nike and Lululemon and ultimately developed logos, company names, products and proposals.

“We based our project off of six basic steps to owning a business and becoming an entrepreneur,” Farmer said. “We had them hone in on these six steps… and then they knew all of these basic fundamentals. Then they were ready to use all of the information and apply it.”

Their projects were judged by a panel of local business owners and were presented at an “entrepreneurship fair” organized in the high school’s performing arts center by Farmer, Ibarra and Cady. Based on their presentations, the fifth-graders could earn awards on their leadership, products, logos and more.

“(The judges) said some of the ideas the kids came up with were things they could see becoming businesses within the next five to 10 years,” Cady said.

Ibarra’s favorite project was made by a few girls who created Lululemon-esque leggings.

“These girls called their business Zulla and their slogan was ‘Zulla for you-la,’” she said. “And these kids went all out. They made their own leggings, they had sketches made up of their business before we even told them to do that and they made bags for shoppers to take home like they do at Lululemon… It was so well put together.”

Farmer, on the other hand, found himself blown away by the confidence with which many of the students presented their ideas to the judges.

“What was surprising to me was – I’ve done a lot of presentations through high school – a lot of these kids’ presentations were as good as, if not better than, some of the ones that I’ve done,” he said.

Even though they were the ones doing the teaching, Farmer, Ibarra and Cady learned a thing or two as well.

“These kids, because they’re younger, see the world in a very different way,” Ibarra said. “They have a different perspective than we do, and they analyze things and they notice things that I don’t catch being a little older. When they made their businesses, they looked at things differently, and I guess I should learn from that to look at things through a new lens.”

No matter what their fifth-graders choose to pursue later on, Farmer, Ibarra and Cady hope they can take some of their entrepreneur skills forward with them.

“I think business teaches anybody real-life skills that you can apply to just about anything you go into, whether that’s teaching or underwater basket-making,” Farmer said. “You can pretty much apply these skills to anything.”