Students of the Aspen Heights MicroSociety answer questions during a presentation Wednesday highlighting what the students do as part of a society at the school. (rdnewsNOW/ Ian Gustafson)

By rdnewsNOW staff

16th year

Aspen Heights MicroSociety showcases student-run ventures to community members

Apr 16, 2025 | 4:36 PM

The Aspen Heights MicroSociety held its Community Partner Day Wednesday to highlight the hard work put forward by students.

On April 16, the MicroSociety invited local businesses and community members to the elementary school for an afternoon of student catered grilled cheese lunch followed by a tour and presentation highlighting what the MicroSociety is all about.

They also held a live market where community members could use their 40 stingers, which is the program’s currency, to purchase student-made products and services.

Principal of Aspen Heights Elementary School, Hans Huizing said the MicroSociety is all about student-led initiatives.

“We have a lot of community support for this so today is our thank you to all of our sponsors,” he said. “We have a wide variety of different businesses who support us from yoga studios to accounting firms.”

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Currently, there are 16 different student-run ventures and each one has been partnered up with a sponsor. Some are service-based while others are product-based.

Every student in the school from Kindergarten to Grade 5 has a job, which includes approximately 240 kids. Some the ventures includes a hair salon, an eatery, a comic club, yoga, and even an arcade.

It truly is a small society that includes a government, which is elected in June. The premier and the deputy premier set the vision for the school for the year and each class has an elected official. They’re the spokesperson for their class.

The government gives the green light for a venture to be started. Students also have to deposit their currency into the bank and pay tax on it and are charged rent.

“It is a microcosm of everything they’ll be doing when they’re older,” Huizing said. “This is all student based. Who runs the bank? Kids. Who run’s the businesses? Kids. Also, the interesting thing about the ventures is it has a wide variety of owners… They can continue that for all the years they are here or even change or expand what they already chose to do.”

The MicroSociety has been an ongoing program for the last 16 years at the school and Aspen Heights is just one of four in Alberta that takes part.

The school originally got the idea for the program after they saw schools in the United States who implemented it. Since then, Aspen Heights has earned multiple community and MicroSociety awards.

“It is something that is very much a part of the DNA of Aspen Heights,” he added. “I think it’s a fantastic program for kids. It is absolutely amazing the amount of skills they learn and the amount of leadership and responsibility they just naturally take on if given the opportunity.”