SSHS students learn sweet lesson in economics
Siloam Springs high school students had a sweet lesson in economics last week with the visit from Rick Boosey, owner of Kyya Chocolate in Elm Springs.
Boosey gave seven presentations to about 180 students in Michele Jackson’s freshman economics class over the course of two days. Students learned about economics, small business, geography and international trade as they heard the story of Kyya Chocolate.
Rick and his wife Cindy began Kyya about five years ago. They started from scratch, and spent months developing their first chocolate bars. Kyya now makes up to 20,000 bars of chocolate a month, and the company’s unique product has caught the attention of Walmart and the television show Shark Tank, which invited Boosey to make an appearance. (He said he isn’t quite ready yet).
Students also learned the chocolate making process, from orchard to finished product. Boosey travels to the countries where he sources cacao beans and makes direct connections with farmers, allowing him to cut out middlemen and pay farmers much more than they would usually get. He also donates 10 percent of his revenue back to the communities where he sources his cacao beans.
Boosey’s experience at Microsoft helped him find channels for international shipping and
figure out the logistics of getting the cacao beans home, where he makes them into small batches of single source chocolate. With 82 flavors, he has a chocolate bar that appeals to almost everyone and each of his chocolate bars has the percentage of chocolate it contains on the label.
During his presentation, Boosey explained the difference between milk and dark chocolate, and students got a chance to sample several flavors such as Uganda Milk Chocolate, which contains 33.3 percent chocolate; Ecuador Midnight Dark Chocolate, which contains 72.5 percent chocolate; and the Uganda Dark Chocolate S’More Bar — the official chocolate bar of Arkansas State Parks. Each student also got to crack open a cacao bean and taste the pure chocolate nib inside.
On his worst days, Boosey gets to make chocolate. On his best days, he gets to sell it, Boosey said.
“I live one of the best lives around,” he told students.
Boosey shared his rules of innovation with students and urged them not to be afraid to fail, but to instead learn from their failures and not repeat the same mistakes. He also encouraged students that they can do anything they put their minds to.
“We fail at chocolate every day … but we try to learn from our mistakes,” he said.
“Rick actually touched on every unit we will be covering this semester so I will be able to refer back to his presentation as we study each topic,” Jackson said.
Jackson said her students are in the middle of their economic fundamentals unit, which focuses on the three basic questions of economics: What to produce? How to produce? And for whom to produce?
It (business) is not just for the money, it’s for giving money as well and providing for other people. Sarah Bilby SSHS ninth-grade student
The students will also discuss the factors of production and entrepreneurship this semester, she said.
Jackson often teaches her students about economics through experience. Later in the semester they will be taking a field trip to Pieology and Ability Tree, and studying the Hershey Corporation and Duck Commander. In previous years, her students have taken field trips to local businesses such as Fratelli’s Pizza, Barnett’s, TJ’s Pizza and TC Screen Printing.
“I enjoy having guest speakers and taking students on field trips because they can experience the content rather than just read about it,” Jackson said. “These opportunities make the content relevant and allow my students to see economics in action in their community.”
Her unique approach to teaching economics earned her the Economics Arkansas’ Bessie B. Moore award in 2013 and again in 2015.
Students Sarah Bilby and A.J. Arrianga were both enthusiastic about sharing what they learned after the class.
Arrianga said he tried Kyya chocolate for the first time in sixth grade, and was very interested to learn more about the company.
“We’ve been learning these things about what’s going to make your company go,” Arrianga said. “So, it’s the three questions. Whom was product for, what to produce, how to produce.”
Bilby pointed out that these three questions apply directly to Boosey’s presentation.
“He’s making 82 flavors, he’s making it for everyone,” she said.
Arrianga said he also learned that Kyya chocolate is successful because it stands for something, which is what millennial buyers want.
“If you do have a company, you shouldn’t try to be other companies, you should be your own company, and have your own background and your own meaning,” he said.
Another important lesson Bilby said she picked up from the presentation was “Don’t accept your first offer or your first buyout.”
Both students agreed they prefer learning by experience, and nodded vigorously when asked if they are interested in a career in business or economics. Arrianga said he wants to be involved in missionoriented organizations and Bilby said she is especially impressed with the way Kyya chocolate gives 10 percent back to the people in the places where their cacao beans are sourced from.
“(Business) is not just for the money, it’s for giving money as well and providing for other people,” she said.
“I’m of the opinion, if I get a chance to share our story, then we’re gonna do it,” Boosey said. “And Michele’s teaching econ, so it’s kind of a perfect fit because we’re talking about geography, we’re talking about small business, we’re talking about entrepreneurism, we’re talking about an international trade.”
Boosey said that about 5,000 local students tour his chocolate shop in Elm Springs each year, but in this case they brought the tour to the school. He explained that when he was young, several entrepreneurs visited his school and made a big impression on him. Now he hopes to pass that to the next generation.
“Quite frankly, when I was this age, I had a couple small business owners come into my class and share what they were doing, and I realized even in podunk North Carolina or eastern Arkansas, you can do anything,” he said.