Unlike the typical classroom setting, Startup Moxie doesn’t rely on tests or worksheets. The class revolves around interactive-based learning, and each student’s journey is different every time. For Peyton Markel, a junior at Elkhart-West, the class is unlike any other and very unique. Currently, he is working on beginning a startup that allows people to engage in gun safety laws.

Markel contends that “the Second Amendment is our God-given right and should be kept.” He is currently working in the ideation phase and is researching ways he can make his startup a reality, rather than a dream. His father, a veteran, gave him the inspiration for his startup company and worked with him in hopes of training the people of Indiana how to properly use a gun. Markel remarks, “Every year in Indiana, we buy enough firearms to restock our United States Marine Corps. However, that far outways the number of people we have trained. So,” he continues, “the idea is to create a training facility.”

Markel believes that armed citizens must have basic training, as it allows them to get to know their firearms and become both comfortable and competent with them. With this being said, the training facility would allow people to use “guns” that would shoot airsoft bullets to get practice. Markel adds this: “In Northern Indiana, there is only one airsoft course facility that, in my opinion, is very janky.” He goes on to say, “It is not efficient at all, but it is still packed door-to-door every day because it is the only one around.” Although his startup has not launched yet, Markel is  enjoying the process and looking forward to taking steps to create his dream startup.

Markel’s startup was a result of his program Startup Moxie. The program, he notes, is “rigorous and hard.” However, it allows the students to create and innovate new ideas that have the potential to change the world. The course allowed its students to work on projects which they find themselves to be passionate about. Markel described the class as “liberating to be able to work on what you are passionate about.” Furthering that point, he adds, “It gives you skills that you’ll use throughout your entire day and life.”

Startup Moxie is a growing course that is unique and touted as a thrilling experience.  It focuses on “transforming the lives of high school students through entrepreneurial thought and immersion.” Both rising juniors and seniors in Elkhart County have the opportunity to join in on this experience by applying through their website: startupmoxieelkhartcounty.org

Learning takes time and growth, so why not grow in an environment that doesn’t grade an individual on paper-and-pencil tests, but rather on what he or she has truly learned?