In Experiencia’s TV studio, part of the complex at 770 N. Halsted, are Barbara S. Pollack (from left), director of development; Howard Tullman, chairman and CEO; Elaine Mondschein, president, and Elizabeth Stamberger, director of operations.
Sun Times Article
Giving kids 'real' work experience
October 22, 2007
BY HOWARD WOLINSKY hwolinsky@suntimes.com
Had enough reality TV? Try reality education?
Using "immersive learning" techniques, Experiencia Inc., a Chicago-based for-profit education company, provides elementary school students with their first taste of real-life jobs by running a mini-town known as Exchange City, or by participating in scientific work at EarthWorks.
Serial entrepreneur Howard Tullman, chairman of Experiencia, said, "We show fourth- through sixth-graders how to be entrepreneurs and scientists."
Tullman's efforts in transforming Exchange City and EarthWorks to a for-profit with a national scope has earned him and the Experiencia team a 2007 Chicago Innovation Award.
The program, operating in 50,000 square feet at 770 N. Halsted, works with teachers to present classroom work over six weeks before setting the kids loose for a day in two different miniworlds.
One setting is Exchange City, a 25,000-square-foot city simulation with the feel of Chicago.
As you enter, you see a sign for "Daley Plaza" on the right and straight ahead is a replica of the L stop at Sheridan and Irving Park, turnstyle and all.
Visitors find a LaSalle bank branch, with a walk-up window; a gazebo with a podium for public events; a mayor's office and judge's chambers; a newspaper office and TV and radio stations; a real estate office; a sign shop; a post office; a telephone company office; a snack shop.
Exchange City businesses have framed sayings, such as:
• • "The only one who wins a fight with a customer is your competitor."
• • "The question is not whether it is good enough, the question is whether it is as good as it can be."
• • "It isn't always easy, but it always has to get done."
• • "The only thing that is supposed to come back is the customer."
Tullman said students are assigned to jobs at which they spend the day. The kids dress as telephone installer, judge, police officer.
A snack shop owner, for example, might start by taking out a $250 bank loan from LaSalle Bank, call the AT&T office to set up phone service, and then spend the rest of the day trying to sell popcorn and Eli's cheesecake.
"The students learn how to participate in the economy," Tullman said. "The kids are very serious about these jobs. They're being exposed to jobs they didn't know existed."
Students learn about 90 occupations. They learn how to create resumes, apply for jobs, write business plans, develop products, how to deliver mail, publish a newspaper, vote in an election, produce a TV show and be a consumer and voter.
If they break the law by stepping on the artificial grass or running, citizens can be ticketed by a police officer who patrols Exchange City on a Segway, and then can have their day in court. "Cash" they earn can be spent on T-shirts, snacks and other Exchange City goods.
A floor away, at the 25,000-square-foot EarthWorks, students learn science principles as well as about 60 different scientific professions. They encounter four environments -- a cave, forest, prairie and lake -- and learn what they need to do to care for the environment and, when a natural disaster, such as an algae bloom or forest fire, occurs, how to deal with it.
More than 100 live animals, including a spiny tailed monitor, crested geckos, a snapping turtle and bearded dragon, live in EarthWorks. Tullman said they are socialized to interact with the students. "The students really regard themselves as scientists," he said.
Educator Elaine Mondschein, president and co-founder of Experiencia, who launched the concept as a non-profit in Kansas City 20 years ago, said research has shown that the Experiencia experience boosts children's reading and achievement scores.
About 100,000 students, including 18,000 students from the Chicago area this year are expected to go through Experiencia in 10 centers nationally, double from last year.
Tullman took over in 2005, transforming the company into a for-profit with a national model and attracted $5 million in venture and angel investor backing.
Said Tullman: "Education is the most important business there is today since it drives everyone's future -- young and old."