Jeff Caplan’s Minute of News: I met the CEO of KSL

Editor’s note: This is an editorial piece. An editorial, like a news article, is based on fact but also shares opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are not associated with our newsroom.

SALT LAKE CITY — You often hear the complaint that nobody teaches kids life skills — like balancing a checkbook. Or how to keep your family debt under control. But there is a program in downtown Salt Lake, right above the Discovery Museum, that teaches kids about the working world. The real world.

Every day of the school year classes go on field trips to the Junior Achievement BizTown. It’s a miniature city where they work at well-known businesses run by kids. They buy lunch at a little Maverick with their paychecks, which they deposit in the banks, that provide real debit cards where they can buy stuff at RC Willey and a little Chick-fil-A.

I was a volunteer the other day and one of the kid-sized businesses was KSL, with a studio and a CEO. So meet the CEO of KSL. His name is Connor. He’s 11.

So I asked the CEO of KSL what his job was.

“I assisted my employees as needed. I selected accounts receivable to see which businesses had paid for advertising.” 

“Can I have a raise?” I asked him. 

“No.”

No? Well I had to try.

Over the course of the day, the kids learned how to deposit a check and how direct deposit and debit cards work. They had to fill out applications and get a loan to start their businesses and pay the staff. At KSL, the staff was kids from Whittier Elementary producing commercials for the other businesses.

At the end of the day, CEO Connor had learned quite a bit about the business world.

I decided to check-in. “What do you like most about your job?”

“I can send bills to other businesses,” was his reply.

As for what he hates the most?

“You keep asking me for a raise.”

There’s the real world. The 11-year-old boss turns me down for a raise. And it really hurts. Because (gulp) 11-year-old Connor is my grandson.

Jeff Caplan is the host of Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News on KSL NewsRadio. Follow him on Facebook and X. 

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