fiery hills.
WHAT IS FIERY HILLS?
Fiery Hills Conglomerate, Inc. is a vibrant work/life community within the scholar population at E.A. Young Academy, complete with its own currency, laws, and economy. Established in 2012 through a collaborative effort by scholars, this miniature society continues to thrive today. Every scholar at Young, from kindergarteners to seniors, is both a citizen and an employee of Fiery Hills. Each day, they integrate their academic experiences with real-world job responsibilities, and twice a year, they showcase their entrepreneurial spirit by presenting small business ideas.
THE ANNUAL JOB FAIR
At the start of each school year, Fiery Hills Conglomerate hosts a job fair to fill a wide range of positions within its community. Before the job fair, scholars receive a list of available positions along with an overview of each role’s responsibilities, ensuring they can make informed choices about their participation.Scholars then have the opportunity to further research job roles, refine their résumés, and prepare for interviews. On Job Fair day, they are interviewed by faculty and scholar department heads, who work together to make hiring decisions. Scholars earn wages in The Hawkeye (HE), the school’s currency, which they use for transactions within the Firehawk Store, Cupid's Auction and on Market Days. The Hawkeye was developed through a democratic process after researching global economic systems.
MARKET DAYS
On semi-annual Market Days, scholars each create a business and buy and sell goods and services to each other using their hard earned Hawkeyes. To prepare, they create business plans, pay for and design ads and commercials, rent space, hire employees (so they can keep their businesses open while they go shop for themselves), consider taking business partners to share expenses (but also revenue), and pay taxes.
WHY IS FIERY HILLS IMPORTANT?
By engaging in Fiery Hills, the scholars gain a deeper understanding of the connections between the classroom and real life skills, including financial literacy, economic conventions, and civic & governmental principles. As in real life, the success of the society depends upon the productivity of the scholars, and so they learn to work as producers, consumers, legislators, bankers, managers, entrepreneurs, and many other roles.
