CASSOPOLIS — Inside the Edward Lowe Foundation Tuesday morning, teenagers dressed in their best, most professional clothing crawled, blindfolded, across a carpeted floor, organizing colorful items into piles, while other young students instructed them how to place the piles.

While this may seem silly to some, it was all part of a day designed to teach area students about business, teamwork and planning.

Lewis Cass ISD hosted its annual Young Entrepreneurs Day at the Edward Lowe Foundation in Cassopolis Tuesday. For the event, teams featuring students from Dowagiac, Edwardsburg, Cassopolis and Marcellus schools create and present a business plan and model to panel of business and industry professionals. Students also participate in a group activity to teach them about team building, hence the blindfolded item sorting, and will be treated to a celebratory lunch at the Edward Lowe Center. Afterwards, the students would be given feedback on their business plans.

Every student who partakes in Young Entrepreneurs Day is enrolled in business management, finance or digital design classes.

“This is all about having our students work together and create a global, collaborative business plan, because that is really what the business world is about these days,” said Mikki Spagnoli, the director of career and technical education at Lewis Cass Intermediate School District.

In the several years that Spagnoli has helped organize Young Entrepreneurs Day, she said that she has over and over again seen the value that students take away from the event.

“I see the kids grow. They get to experience a different level,” Spagnoli said. “This is all hands-on learning. They really get a hands-on, unique experience instead of presenting to their peers in their school. … They can see that it is possible to create a business and build it from the ground up.”

Dowagiac Union High School seniors who participated in the event agreed that they took away valuable lessons and knowledge from the experience of creating a business plan and presenting it to area professionals. The Dowagiac team consisted of students Gavin Luthringer, Alec Saylor, Colin Rafferty and Austin Sandberg. Together, the team made a business plan for an imaginary food truck called Bubba’s Wild Game Meat. Because the foursome had been preparing their business plan since December, they said they felt confident in the presentation they gave Tuesday.

“We all have a background in business, so it was easy for us to talk about it,” Saylor said.

Saylor, Rafferty and Luthringer all said that they wanted to go into the business field one day. Rafferty and Luthringer are currently working on a business called CGI Detailing, while Saylor hopes to one day take over his family’s business, Saylor’s Pizzeria.

“It has reinforced it and made us think more about business plans and working together,” Saylor said.

“It really helped us know more about the process of creating a business,” Rafferty added. “I really think that will help as we go forward and create our own businesses.”