Meadowview School Students Compete in Lansing Youth Startup Challenge

Meadowview School serves students in Eaton County who are eligible to receive services under the categories of moderate and severe cognitive impairments, severe multiple impairments, severe emotional impairments, autism spectrum disorders and traumatic brain injuries.

Creating Bow Wow Bones as a class, allowed the students to learn a variety of skills including cooking skills (following a recipe, learning proper baking measurements, using an oven, washing dishes and cleaning), financial skills (identifying money, counting money, providing change, and keeping a bank ledger), packaging skills and communication skills.

Three students, Blake Blanchard, Savannah Ballard, and Russell Letterly represented the class at the expo at the Lansing Center in an effort to win prize dollars to further their idea as well as to sell their naturally made dog bones to the community.

“Even though Bow Wow Bones did not take home a cash prize at the event, I still feel like we won. Watching the students interact with other students, adults and the judges was the reward,” said Michelle O’Meara, Eaton RESA Special Education Teacher. “At the beginning of the day, the students were very shy and a bit overwhelmed but the more they practiced their sales pitch, the more confident they became. By the time the judges came by, they nailed it!”

One of the students added, “Before we worked on Bow Wow Bones, I was unable to count money or make change but now I can count up to $100!”

The Lansing Youth Startup Challenge is open to any middle school or high school-aged student, living or attending school in the tri-county region around Lansing. The event consists of an Executive Summary Business Plan portion (50% of the total score), a Product Display/Demo portion (50% of the total score). Cash prizes are awarded for over 20 different categories totaling $10,000.