Adinvita sets Entrepreneur Day – Odessa American

Adinvita Private School will host Entrepreneur Day from 8:30 a.m. to noon June 1 at the school at 5101 Twin Towers Blvd.

The event showcases products created by prekindergarten through eighth grade students. About 40 students are involved this year, Founder and Principal Linda Subia said.

Seventh-grader Leyla Townes, fifth-grader Zaylie Flores, first-grader Amiyah Cuevas and third-grader Isabella Belanger have their projects ready.

They’ve been working on them the past month or two.

Townes is creating hair clips with decorations on them; Flores is making filled macaroons; Cuevas is summer hats and decorating them with flowers, ribbons, hearts and gems; and Belanger is creating 3D printed animals.

After some consideration, Townes said she and her mom decided on hair clips because girls need hair clips.

“Everywhere I go, I see somebody with clips and they’re like really cute and it helps (keep) your hair up. That’s why I decided to do clips because everybody uses clips. I see all the teachers using clips. I see a lot of the students using clips, so that’s why I decided to do clips,” Townes said.

Flores said she plans to fill her macaroons with strawberry, chocolate and vanilla.

“Everyone kind of likes cookies and desserts, so I like to see people eat and enjoy that dessert that people make,” she added.

Cuevas said it’s almost summer when more people wear hats, plus she wanted to make them more fashionable. Her grandmother, who makes hats for cancer patients, is helping her, Subia said.

Belanger is making 3D printed animals and other items like vases and baby hangers. She added that some people might like animals to keep them company.

Flores said she enjoys when people say they love the desserts and talk about how they love them.

Townes said she likes seeing how her clips turn out.

“I can’t wait to see when other people see them and I hope they really do like them because I’ve been working really hard,” she said.

This year, they are dividing entries into primary and upper grades.

The event will be outside in the parking lot and they are going to have all kinds of food, lemonades, magical lemonades, popcorn, flavored popcorn, shirts, caps, hats, jewelry, fresh eggs, corn, journals, muffins and vases.

Subia said one of the fathers of one of the students is going to give lessons on an excavator and how to use it.

This is the fifth year for the fair.

Judges will be Lindsey Balderaz, assistant professor of early childhood education at University of Texas Permian Basin and director of the Transformative Leadership Academy in Monahans; State Farm agent Andrew Hernandez; and another judge who has not been named yet.

“I think it’s going to be a big day. They’re all excited about their projects. Right now, we’re going through the whole design thinking process and we’re giving them feedback on their paperwork that they have to turn in on the research, on their commercials and their logos that they have to create,” Subia said.

Even the little kids are making logos.

“They have to talk about all the details of it, like what is it going to look like? What is it going to taste like? What is it going to smell like? And they have to have a slogan. Each one of them (will) have their project folder on their tables … and it’ll have all the details of all the work that they put into it. It’s just not like buying something and reselling it. It’s buying something and maybe making it more innovative, more creative; something that goes with the trends and something that’s fashionable. Something that all people will like,” she added.

There is a lot of reading, writing, math and financial literacy involved.

“We take it very serious. They have to turn in a midpoint, and then we check it and give them their feedback. They have to turn in the final project. Then they have to bring it to life,” Subia said.

“A lot of the kids that have already done it, you can see a lot of growth and progress that they’ve made throughout the years. It’s like Leyla, (she) used to be a very quiet girl and now she loves speaking to people,” Subia added. “I think it brings out the best in them.”

They usually go over how the day went at the end of the year. But the school year will start and end late this year due to the move from downtown.

Next year, they hope to have Entrepreneur Day earlier in the spring so the students can get feedback. The school year will end June 14.

They’ll start again in mid-August.

“They can talk about how they want to make it next year, how to improve it and some of them are doing the same thing that they did last year, but they’re just making it better and they’re adding more innovation to it,” Subia said.