By Adam Rollins, Record Staff Writer
In celebration of the Wright City Chamber of Commerce’s 80th year, The Record is publishing a series of stories to highlight the local businesses that call Wright City home.
Liberty Christian Academy senior Jenna Grow recently got a preview into the world of small business and an experience most high school students don’t encounter.She hosted members of the Wright City Area Chamber of Commerce for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at LCA to celebrate a small business she and a group of classmates started at the school.“It’s All Fun and Games Cafe” is the business Grow and her partners developed as part of the upperclassmen entrepreneurship class at LCA. For a few dollars, students can check out board games from a collection and play them during lunch or after school, and once per month the game cafe will host a family game night with dinners for sale.The experience of starting a business is one of the ways LCA tries to prepare its entrepreneurship students for success after graduation.That includes preparing them for the challenges that go along with business, including having to acquire (and pay for) mock government permits and other requirements.“I’ve learned the struggles of opening your own business. I’ve had to struggle through many hoops and hurdles just to open up,” Grow explained. The students in the class conduct market research and develop business plans that include how to generate a profit. Grow said it’s a challenge that made her more diligent for what she might take on in the future.“In life, you’re going to have a lot stacked on. It’s not just going to be one thing at a time,” she commented. Grow, who lives in Wentzville, has been at Liberty Christian Academy her entire school career. She was enrolled in preschool there shortly after LCA was founded in 2005.Christian values and beliefs are a core part of what sets the school apart, Grow said. That Christian focus is infused into many of the class subjects, and that, too, is preparing the students for their lives after graduating.“This is our foundation, based on our core beliefs as Christians, so that we can go out into the world,” Grow said. “We know how we can stand up for our beliefs, take in what we’re learning and put a biblical perspective on it.”
Small school, but growingThe academy was founded in the former Wright City public school building on the Interstate 70 north service road. Administrator Bev Wilgus said the small school’s enrollment has been growing, and that it will probably need to expand at this rate. There are currently 147 students enrolled at LCA.Wilgus said LCA obviously isn’t as large as a public school, but tries to offer many of the same activities and programs. With their small numbers, she said individual students actually have more of a chance to get involved in things like sports teams.First getting the school running and modernizing a building constructed almost 100 years ago took a lot of donated time and materials, Wilgus commented.“A lot of the ‘sweat equity’ labor has been donated,” she observed. Volunteers from the community and area churches have provided much of that effort.Along with growing enrollment, LCA has been improving what it can offer students. Wilgus said the school earned accreditation two years ago, and began participating in the A-Plus scholarship program last year.The school also is getting more involved in community events, such as Strassenbash, and is a member of the Wright City Area Chamber of Commerce. Teachers and students have also participated in food drives, community cleanups, handmade blanket and scarf donations and nursing home visits.Of one particular project, Wilgus recalled the students working to pack Christmas meal boxes.“The kids were blessed in being a blessing for someone else,” she added.
Business skills for studentsState Rep. Bryan Spencer, who teaches at LCA, said the small size of the classes has become an advantage for getting students involved.“They’re on a mindset that in order to make a difference, you have to get involved. Because here, because of the numbers that we have, you have to be a leader. You don’t have a choice,” Spencer said. “(Students) take those skills, and they become leaders in their church, in their community. They take a leadership role in the employment that they get.”Spencer teaches the entrepreneurship class at LCA. He structures it to simulate how leaders will be evaluated in a business environment, sometimes in competition with one another, and not just based on formulaic grading.He explained that the students work with real money running businesses as a class and in small groups, and have to learn how to reach out in the community to find a market for whatever business they come up with. The revenue the students generate helps pay for senior mission trips and other support for the school.The program started out as an economics class that became focused on practical application.“There’s no point in hammering the textbook stuff and just highlighting the application, so we’ve flip-flopped the model,” Spencer explained.Other classes at the school rely on the practical experience of outside community members to help inform the students. Classes such as career exploration and outdoor education frequently bring in guest presenters, and community members help judge speech contests and mock interviews.“If we aren’t going out, they’re coming in. There’s always something going on,” Spencer said. “We do a lot.”
Students in the middle school-level career exploration class at Liberty Christian Academy work together to correctly prepare military MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) packets on Sept. 23. The activity was part of a section of learning about careers in the military.
Record photo/Adam Rollins
Liberty Christian Academy senior Jenna Grow, far left, is joined by members of the Wright City Chamber of Commerce and city government for a ceremonial ribbon cutting Sept. 18 for the game cafe business her class group started at the school. The LCA entrepreneurship class teaches students the many steps of starting a business.
Submitted photoLiberty Christian AcademyRecord photo
