Middle School Elective · Grades 7–8
An elective where middle schoolers don't study business — they build one, together. In teams that run like a real creative agency — every student holding a real role, from strategy to design — they take an idea from problem to launch, guided weekly by a working practitioner, and celebrate it all at a Family Showcase.
Taught inside your co-op · One hour weekly · Full-year or semester formats
Research they conducted, an offer they designed, a brand they built — every artifact made by their hands, saved and shown to families.
The habit of verifying, questioning, and knowing good from slop — trained before AI ever enters the room, then practiced with it.
A year of listening, making, and presenting inside a team where their gifts were needed — the quiet kind of confidence that lasts.
The talker, the artist, the organizer, the quiet deep thinker — agency pods run on different gifts. Students rotate through real roles — account, strategy, creative, operations — and discover that business is a team sport, and their seat matters.
Everyone tells kids AI can build anything with a prompt. We teach the part AI can't do: finding a problem worth solving, understanding real people, and knowing what good looks like. Students learn the craft first — then learn to direct AI with it.
At this age, all AI runs on the classroom screen — students direct, the instructor drives. Safe, included, and better teaching: they watch verification happen live.
Bootcamps end. The Agency promotes. Returning students climb the same ladder professionals do — same weekly rhythm, new venture, higher bar.
Found a first venture with your pod. Learn every seat, ship every artifact, present at the Showcase.
Scale last year's venture to new customers — or found a better one. Hold a lead seat and onboard the new Associates.
Run the venture like an agency and mentor junior pods — then step up to the High School program's bar.
And nobody ever enters late: every year begins at problem discovery, because every venture does. New year, new venture, new seniority — nobody repeats, everybody advances.
The same disciplined shape every week — students know it by heart within a month.
This elective measures growth in what students actually ship. Agency badges mark each milestone — Listener, Brand Builder, Launcher — and families receive quarterly snapshots of the pod's real work.
Your co-op provides
The program brings
Yes — by design. All classroom AI runs on the instructor's screen: students direct, the instructor drives. Most AI tools require users to be 13+, so this keeps every student included, and it's better teaching — they watch verification happen live. Any home use goes through a parent's account with supervision.
Faith integration is set with each community. In scripture-led co-ops, every lesson opens with an anchor verse tied to that week's business skill — a good name before a logo, honest scales before a price. In others, the values — integrity, service, diligence, humility — are quietly woven. Either way, character leads.
Then the pod is built for them. Teams share the stage together at the Family Showcase — nobody stands alone — and rotating roles mean the quiet deep thinker is as essential as the talker. Confidence here is earned along the way, never demanded on stage.
No promises are made about outcomes — that verdict belongs to the customers, which is the entire lesson. Every student leaves with a portfolio of real work regardless of how the venture fares, and first customers are co-op families, with parents approving any outreach.
That's the design. Returning students advance to the next rung — new venture, senior role, higher bar — while new students always start at the front door. Nobody repeats; everybody advances.
Yes — the journey is built to flex. The full-year format runs 36 weeks (compressing cleanly to 32–33), and a 16-week semester format walks the complete arc — problem to launch to Family Showcase — in one semester. Some co-ops run one grade per semester, giving families two Showcase celebrations a year. Your format is set during the program consultation.
Tell us about your co-op and your students — we'll walk you through the year, the method, and what it takes to launch.
Request a Program ConsultationA parent, not a director? Share this page with your co-op’s leadership — the Agency comes to co-ops through them.