By Anna Guido
Enquirer contributor

DEER PARK - When Anitra Herd watches American Idol on TV, she doesn't have to dream about becoming a singer and cutting a CD - because she already has.

Andrew Berling, 8, prepares party packs for sale. (Ernest Coleman photo)

The seventh-grader sings solo on the second CD released by St. John the Evangelist School choir - one of 14 student-run businesses in the school's Student Enterprise Program.

Anitra, 12, of Kennedy Heights, manages the 14-member choir of first- through seventh-graders. She hopes the experience will give her an edge in a real-life career as a gospel singer.

"I want to be famous and I also want to be on American Idol," Anitra said. "Choir is my main thing."

The enterprise program is administered through the University of Cincinnati's Economics Center for Education and Research. Thirteen other schools in Greater Cincinnati have similar programs.

Students love the business and finance program because they can earn credits to buy goods and services from other student businesses, said St. John's Principal Pat Sand.

Every Wednesday for one hour, the K-8 school of 200 students is transformed into a city of small businesses run by 12-year-old CEOs. Besides the choir, there is a bookstore, teddy bear workshop, snack shack, community newspaper, ecology museum, government offices and a bank.

Ron Clink, director of education for the UC Economics Center for Education and Research, launched the Student Enterprise Program in Cincinnati five years ago.

He created it in 1991 in Seattle. The goal was to "dramatically improve students' basic skills as measured on standardized tests."

The program eventually was adopted by schools nationwide.

"Our role now, though, is specific to Cincinnati," Clink said. "And our whole mission is outreach with school systems."

Clink said the choir at St. John's is a perfect business model for students. He said the choir already has adopted most of the concepts - consistency, record keeping, contracting out for services - that the program is intended to teach.

Participating schools

These other schools are involved in the Student Enterprise Program:

Adena Elementary, West Chester Township; Freedom Elementary, West Chester Township; Van Gorden Elementary, Liberty Township; Pennyroyal Elementary, Franklin; Anthony Wayne Elementary, Franklin; Franklin Junior High, Franklin; Taft Elementary, Middletown; McKinley Elementary, Middletown; Monroe Elementary, Hamilton; Roselawn-Condon, Roselawn; Entrepreneurship High School, Winton Place; Cincinnati Christian School, Fairfield; Winton Woods High School (special needs students only), Forest Park.

For information, call Layna Stiles, 556-2949, or e-mail layna.stiles@uc.edu; or Ron Clink, 556-5198 or e-mail ron.clink@uc.edu.

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