Games for Change

Middle School students created hand-crafted arcade games to entertain their 1st-grade friends, while learning about the power of microfinancing.

Seventh grade students in Brian Markwald’s economics class participated in a service project while learning about microfinance and the power of loans to change lives. They developed a wide variety of arcade games and invited Lower School students to play the games for 25 cents each. The money raised was used to make a zero-interest microloan through the KIVA organization, which helps entrepreneurs in impoverished places all over the world. Students in USM’s 7th grade have participated in this project for many years, and recently crossed the $45,000 threshold of loans made collectively.