Kayleigh and Victoria introduce young women to the world of business and law
By: Kayleigh McArdle and Victoria Huang
Who are we?
Women in Business and Law is a nonprofit career readiness program providing opportunities to middle-school-aged girls. Our goals are to promote an interest in the business and legal world, provide a safe space for girls to learn, and instill a foundation of independence at a young age.
In the business and legal world, there still maintains a gender imbalance in the representation in top leadership positions; there is a glass ceiling that prevents women from obtaining executive roles. While women are able to get entry level jobs in the fields, the difference in the gender gap in higher-level roles widens. We see an equal proportion of men and women in lower ranking jobs, but as you look up the ladder, the majority of these positions are held by men.
By creating an interest in these fields at a young age through a welcoming learning environment, we aim to empower women into creating their own opportunities and positions. We do not just want more women in these fields, we want to create leaders who will forge their own path. While some of these students may not end up in business or law, the skills taught will be applicable for any field they choose.
The Beginnings:
Our program may have been planned in a local coffee shop one afternoon, but our vision had been set from the beginning.
Victoria’s Story:
Since I learned how to write, I was discouraged from going into business. It was a “man’s job” to control the finances of the household, and business was something “I could never understand”. While I have fought my way through the world of business, earning myself positions and opportunities in FBLA and outside organizations, it should not be considered the standard. My goal for creating a business program is to level the playing field in the subject by exposing girls to business. While they may not choose to go into the field in the future, the lessons taught in personal finance and business proposals will provide a foundation for skills in leadership, public speaking, and self-sufficiency.
Kayleigh’s Story:
After being told as a child that becoming a lawyer was equivalent to selling one’s soul—I became captivated by the paradoxical nature of being a justice fighter but being blind to injustices all at the same time. Upon further inspection of the legal system, through an internship at a law firm, I have found the many difficulties that come with seeking the truth. I first tried to fix these injustices with a website that allows people to search for a lawyer that suits their needs easily without a cost barrier (https://kaysmcardle.wixsite.com/thelawfullogistics). However, while creating The Lawful Logistics I pondered how much I could have accomplished if I found my passion for law earlier. Not wanting other girls to be filled with this regret, I joined forces with Victoria to give middle-school-aged girls the opportunity we never had: to find our passions at a young age so we can indulge in them so much more in our high school years.
How We Did It:
The curriculum for our program started with jotting down what we felt was not being taught in schools–basic human rights, savings and investments, etc. But we also realized that these lessons needed to be engaging for the students, so we teamed up with local business teachers and created lessons based on interactivity between us and the students. We held Shark Tank proposals, mock trials, board games, and debates. We knew that while an online platform would generate the most accessibility, doing an in person program would be the most engaging way to teach these students so we started off by collaborating with a local library to create a week-long program. We spread awareness by emailing middle schools in Morris County, totaling to 34 schools reached, and also hung up flyers in local parks, community centers, and libraries.
In the coming years, we plan to continue this program, creating an online platform where students all over the world can join in, collaborating with keynote speakers, and bringing in-person sessions to schools in the country.
Past programs:
We have held one camp so far this past summer in June 2023.
We would open each session with a seemingly meaningless debate where the students would be able to defend their position with personal experiences and get the chance to play devil's advocate. Some of these debates included:
1) Should PE be required?
2) Should TikTok be banned?
3) Should there be limits on driving, drinking, voting, or drafting?
The point of the exercise was to allow the girls to learn debate skills in a friendly environment and get them out of their shells early on in the camp day. Since both legal and business professions require one to have public debate skills and strong speech, we wanted to integrate this into our program.
We created a curriculum for each day, alternating between law days and business days with having one interdisciplinary day where we showed how business and law intersect.
Day 1:
To start, we wanted to teach our students more about personal finance, a critical topic to managing their spending habits, so they were able to make their own financial decisions in the long run. We did a simulation where students choose a career they wanted to pursue and then factored in expenses such as debt to see how they would be able to fund their futures. They would then learn how to manage their spending with expenses such as taxes being taken out of their paycheck. They also learned how to make emergency payments by setting up an emergency fund. Throughout this process we incorporated the prices of a living space and planning for retirement while also allowing them to invest in assets. At the end of the day we had them sell their assets and whoever had the most money (including retirement accounts) would win a small prize.
The next part of this day included using a simulation on the pricing of college using https://www.timeforpayback.com/. We then concluded with a Stock Market Game from the 1920s to show them how to invest their money when a stock market crash lies just beyond the horizon.
Day 2:
On this day, we wanted to start off with a brief introduction into law, since it isn’t commonly talked about in school. They were introduced with the fake image around the legal profession by watching the introduction scene to the show Suits. We then showed them a slide show called “So You Want to Be a Lawyer” which showed them the different career paths they can take by becoming a lawyer (baby bar, undergrads, LSAT, corporate law, specialization law). We then had booths that would each have a different type of law (divorce, family, immigration) that they can explore. We also had booths for association legal positions such as judges, associates, and paralegals. Between each of these activities we showed them mock questions from the LNAT and LSAT to see how we would logic through them and ponder why these skills are necessary for a lawyer to have.
We concluded the day with a mock trial activity using the case of Depp v. Heard to show them how to approach and pivot in a case presenting manner.
Day 3:
On this day, we decided to delve into a specific field of business: marketing. We gave each student fake information, such as income, age, gender, and interests. The students then investigated this information and came up with a product that the classroom would buy based on the information given. We then flipped around this activity and gave them new product ideas from Kickstarter and had them market them towards a targeted audience.
This was then followed by a lesson on “marketing mix” teaching the 4 P’s of marketing in an analogy of a cake mix.
We then concluded this day with a board game, Cashflow, that teaches all about saving their money (similar to monopoly).
Day 4:
It was essential to us that we taught our students their basic rights, so we discussed constitutional law. We opened with a presentation on the history of the Bill of Rights (what they are, the Constitution itself, key cases, and interpretations). We then played the game “Do I Have a Right?” which uses these Bill of Right legal precedents to test the students on how to apply these legal concepts. We did this in an interactive manner by assigning the students to be a client or lawyer (which they then switched half way through the game).
We then ended the day by doing another mock trial but this time more guided. We used the case of Aurora v. Vexley, which is a case provided by the Institute of Youth in Policy’s education department.
Day 5:
Our final day, we wanted to combine the lessons taught in law and business to use in a Shark Tank competition. This was meant to foster their public speaking and creative thinking by creating their business proposal as well as test out the legal skills they have acquired. We opened with examples of Shark Tank presentations and asked them to tell us what they thought the presenters did well and what they could have improved on. Then we had the students, in groups, make their very own business project and come up with costs of production, who they will market it to, and answer the following questions:
1) What is your product?
2) How would you start your business?
3) What is your target market?
4) How would you profit?
5) How would you promote your business?
6) Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats?
7) How is it a new product?
8) How much would your product cost? How are you going to profit from your business?
9) How sustainable will this be? Can you see this continuing to grow later on in 15 years?
The legal aspect of this day came in when we taught them about permit and patent law and then created a situation where they would be suing each other over the intellectual property rights. They would then have to come up with defenses on either side to convince us, the jury, who should gain the majority ownership of the company.
At the conclusion of the program they then presented their product to us using what they had learned is successful (an attention-grabbing opening, how the investment works, the key people and how to appeal to them).
Get involved:
We are looking to expand our program! This way young girls all around the United States (or even internationally) can gain exposure to the legal and business systems, to discover their passion earlier. If you are interested in starting a chapter in your community, send us an email at womeninbusinessandlaw.crp@gmail.com and we will send you our materials for the day-by-day curriculum. We will also be able to provide you support through the process such as providing registration materials and negotiating with local libraries for you to host the camp. If you already have a club/project in place that aligns our values we would also love to collaborate.
Contact info:
Our Linkedins:
linkendin.com/in/kayleigh-mcardle-b34888268
linkedin.com/in/victoria-huang-10b159280
Our Email: womeninbusinessandlaw.crp@gmail.com
