August 3, 2011 Dear All: Greetings!

In celebration of learning particularly of Art and Creation Week for this academic year, Grade 9 and 10 students of Business Studies class have devised an idea of putting up an Honesty Store for the entire school to be opened from the 15th until the 19th of this month. The whole idea of the project is to provide our school with a special store which sells goods without the presence of its owner or vendor. Students buy, pay or get their change on their own basically without anyone looking. According to Ens. Phillip Andrew A. Pestano, a Philippine Navy and the mind behind this innovation, a typicalHonesty Store has all items and goodies priced and placed individually within each shelf. A cash box is secured inside the shelf where the buyer will deposit theamount of cash in exchange for what he took. Through this project, Grade 9 and 10 classes believe that honesty, integrity, self-control, selfdiscipline, truth and justice can be inculcated among the students,and [t]hat these values are better imparted and learned through experience and in practice than in a classroom setting. It is also our belief that for these values to be understood by our youth, these must be practiced everyday (Pestano, 2011 ).Honesty Store has been adopted time and again in many schools not only in the Philippines but also in the United States and some schools in Indonesia which means that it has already gained reputation for being effective and inspiring. The students, under the teacher supervision, have agreed to finance and manage this project with the following rationale: 1.To cultivate values particularly honesty in a pragmatic and naturalistic way among themselves and their fellow learners 2. To enable them to apply their knowledge and skills of the subject and provide them the opportunity to make learning meaningful and relevant 3. To solidify their creativity and critical thinking skills and allow them to put virtues at the core of their learning

The specifics of the said project are as follows:

1. Grade 10 class is to conduct market research in order to determine the kinds of items students would like to buy and the readiness of the school for the said project. This is in line with their lesson regarding marketing and market research. 2. Based on the analyses,research results and recommendations( Grade 10 studentswill present the results to Grade 9; Grade 9 contributes through adding value to the items ), each class will start planningand working which entails purchasing, packaging, and pricing. They are also to highlight and promote the main objective of the project as mentioned above. 3. To be consistent with the idea of a value-laden activity, student-entrepreneurs select only nutritious and healthy foods and drinks to sell. They are also to include recycled / used items in order to promote environmental awareness. Furthermore, they are given creative freedom by allowing them to add value to all the items they intend to sell, reinforcing an important lesson in Business Studies. 4. Each student as well as the teacher agreed to share a certain amount of money to finance the project and to take the risks involved in it. Each contributes 50,000 rupiah; there are 5 students in Grade 9 and 9 in Grade 10, so the proposedcapital is 750,000 rupiah. They are also to manage the store by themselves and each participant is given a task to do with a sense of responsibility and accountability. 5. Wise spending of money is part and parcel of the program, so students agreed that a portion of the income shall be used to finance future school projects that they might do for the succeeding term or semester. 6. Finally, to put the Christian values they learn at Ichthus into action, they are also willing to donate some of their earnings to the financially-challenged students residing around the school area. Wefervently hope that this small initiative will help realize IchthusSekolah s mission and vision of love for learning and for God. We ask all the parties concerned to grant us your permission and support for the realization and success of this project. Thank you very much and have a blessed day!

In Him, Mr. Renato P. Panes