A&T Cooperative Extension Launches “Mini-Society” Project

For Immediate Release
November 13, 2001

Greensboro, NC: Children in public housing communities in two North Carolina counties now have a unique learning opportunity, thanks to a project coordinated by the North Carolina A&T State University Cooperative Extension Program.

Funded through the Kaufman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, “Mini-Society” is an experience-based instructional system targeted primarily for teaching entrepreneurship, economics, and citizenship concepts to students ages 8 to 12. The NC A&T Cooperative Extension Program is helping Cooperative Extension personnel based in Rockingham and Martin counties adapt the system for use with more than 100 youth residing in public housing communities.

“The Mini-Society leads students through a process in which they design and develop their own society, creating a name, flag, and currency,” said Dr. Shirley McNeill, 4-H youth development specialist and director of the A&T effort. “Through the process, they identify tasks and businesses which might earn money, and they learn how to infuse that money into their society to make it function. For disadvantaged youth, the process provides an economic framework of the real world and gives them a sense of how they can be successful in it.”

Among the activities involved in the process are luncheons with area entrepreneurs, and an award and recognition program.

In Martin County, Danny Butler, 4-H agent, and Christine Manning, 4-H program assistant, coordinate the local effort, while Edith Wiley, family education assistant, leads the effort in Rockingham County.

Mini-Society was conceived by Dr. Marilyn Kourilsky in the early 1970s and has been refined, extended, and extensively tested over a period of nearly three decades. It has been widely implemented in over 43 states and has been shown to be effective across socioeconomic boundaries and student learning styles.

The Kaufman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership facilitates the use of Mini-Society throughout the country.

The Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, based in Kansas City, Missouri at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, was established in 1992 with the vision of accelerating entrepreneurship in America. Ewing Marion Kauffman, with over $1 billion dollars from his personal wealth, endowed the private foundation to carry out his vision of self-sufficient people in healthy communities. The foundation continues to give back to the community in two areas that were of great philanthropic importance to Mr. Kauffman: youth development and entrepreneurial leadership.

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