student leadership

Entrepreneurship activities for students do not always look like business plans and market stalls. Sometimes they look like leadership camps, team challenges, goal setting, confidence building and learning how to step out of your comfort zone.

Amber’s Green SuperCamp reflection shows how real-world learning experiences can help children grow in confidence, courage, communication and initiative.

Entrepreneurship Activities for Students at Green SuperCamp

For our readers who were expecting Part 3 to our “Teaching Your Kids To Achieve Success” series of articles, I’d like to let you know that will be up very soon and it will be well worth the read.

Flynn and Amber Howitt have just returned from a Young Leaders Camp in Bali. As it is so fresh and exciting, I thought we would interrupt our five-part series and share some snippets of Amber’s experience whilst on camp.

Before I hand you over to Amber, I would like to give our readers a little background about Green SuperCamp, which was held at Green School Bali.

In 2012, three of our children — Kaitlin, Jai and Flynn — attended the camp and returned full of experience and wisdom. The camp is designed to create young leaders who care for our future world.

It does this by building their confidence, encouraging them to think big, and giving them the skills to learn, interact and step out of their comfort zones. In this way, it becomes one of those powerful entrepreneurship activities for students that teaches far more than a normal classroom lesson.

Leadership and learning activities:

This year Amber was old enough to go along too. She was very excited because she had heard all the awesome stories and learning from her siblings’ camp experiences the year before.

Also, a bunch of friends from Western Australia were coming along as well — Maddi Barrett, Macy Hobson, Georgia Dewar and Lachlan McRoberts.

To learn more about the philosophy of Green School Bali, you can read our earlier article.

Amber Howitt’s Green SuperCamp Reflection

So enough from me… here is Amber Howitt’s Green SuperCamp reflection.

Green SuperCamp, for me, was an amazing experience! Everyone there is treated evenly and kindly. No one is excluded or mistreated, so everyone is happy.

Your phones and valuables are given in, but you can reunite with your valuables almost every night to contact your parents.

Learning through real activities:

The Green SuperCamp itself is built mainly out of bamboo. It is nurtured and cared for by the people within it.

They use water from their lake and purify it. People from the world outside Green School can come and collect the water for free and use it in their homes.

Green School is meant so people around the community can be involved with the school. They make their own power using solar energy and grow their own food in food gardens.

Goal Setting as Entrepreneurship Activities for Students

The camp has inspired me to do more with my life, rather than just sit around and be… normal.

It has inspired me to take challenges, adventures and think of the things I could be doing. Writing books and travelling around the world are two of my crazy ideas. Those things might be a little hard for someone at the age of eleven though, but I can try to work up to that goal.

The steps for goal making are:

• Design it
• Outline it
• In your face — tackle barriers
• Take action!

Because of this, goal setting is one of the most practical entrepreneurship activities for students. It helps children imagine a future, break it into steps and take responsibility for moving forward.

Facing challenges and building trust:

Learning Strategies and Student Confidence

We were taught Quantum Reading and Writing. I improved my reading speed with the same comprehension by over 100%.

I concentrated by using the Alpha State. Alpha State is a technique to relax and concentrate better.

The steps to Alpha State are:

• Sit up
• Breathe in and out
• Close eyes
• Think of a peaceful place
• Roll eyes up and down
• Open eyes
• Concentrate

These strategies are useful because they help students understand how they learn. For entrepreneurial kids, focus, confidence and self-awareness are just as important as having a business idea.

Camp life and friendships:

Communication as Entrepreneurship Activities for Students

The friendships you can make at Green SuperCamp are really special. I made friends with both team leaders and kids from all over the world.

It is really easy to do so because everyone wants to make friends. Sometimes your relationships can last forever.

Green SuperCamp teaches you how to have the courage to become friends. No one is alone at Green School or Green SuperCamp.

I also learnt techniques to help me learn. These help me improve my relationship with my teachers. We call this “SLANT”.

Here are the “Tips for Learning” or “SLANT”:

• Sit up
• Lean forward
• Ask questions
• Nod your head
• Talk to your teacher

Communication skills are an important part of entrepreneurship activities for students. Students need to ask questions, listen well, speak clearly and build trust with people around them.

Thanking and Apologising

We also learnt the importance of thanking people and apologising. We were taught how to do this properly.

We call the steps to thanking “OTFD” or “Open The Front Door”.

Observation, Think, Feel, Desire

We call the steps to apologise “AAMR”, pronounced “A Mr!”

Acknowledge, Apologise, Make it Right, Recommit

Eight Keys of Success

Lastly, we were taught the “Eight Keys of Success”. These are the keys that keep you on course for success.

For each of these keys, we learn a different hand movement. This helps us remember them.

Here they are:

1. Integrity
2. Failure Leads to Success
3. Speak With Good Purpose
4. This Is It
5. Commitment
6. Ownership
7. Flexibility
8. Balance

Altogether, these keys are another example of entrepreneurship activities for students because they build the habits children need for leadership, responsibility and future enterprise.

Why These Experiences Matter

If you read this and think, “Nah… my child wouldn’t want to go to that camp!” think again.

Any child, from any place, no matter what, will want to go to GreenSuperCamp.

Thank you to my parents and camp sponsors for making it possible for me to attend Green SuperCamp. Thank you to my friends and new friends that supported me on camp.

Also, thank you to all the team leaders and facilitators who taught me all the tools I need for life. Lastly, thank you my team. GO TEAM H!

Thanks Amber for your reflection.

Jai, Kaitlin and Lachlan are currently on the Senior Green SuperCamp. You can also read Jai’s Green SuperCamp experience and Flynn’s Green SuperCamp reflection.

Kaitlin also shared why she wanted to attend the Green SuperCamp in Why Our Kids Wanted to Attend the Green SuperCamp.

Our “Teaching Your Kids To Achieve Success” series will continue with Part 3. You can also read Part 1 and Part 2.

Where to Next?

If you enjoyed Amber’s Green SuperCamp reflection, you may also like:

• Raise Entrepreneurial Kids — practical ideas for building confidence, initiative and real-world thinking.
• Mindset, Confidence & Leadership — more articles about helping kids grow through courage, resilience and action.
• Green School Bali Leading the Way — our earlier article about Green School Bali and real-world learning.
• Green SuperCamp Bali Raps — Flynn’s Green SuperCamp reflection.
• Family Adventure & Real-World Learning — family stories about learning through experience.

Amber would love to hear your comments. Be sure to ask her some questions below.