Their goodies included cookies and candy. Some had more, some had less.

“Think about how happy this makes you,” instructed Stephan Gohmann, the College of Business economics professor who opened the two-day Economics & Entrepreneurship Summer Program. The program July 11-12 was the first summer camp for high school students offered by the college’s John H. Schnatter Center for Free Enterprise, which Gohmann directs.

He went around the room, and the 30-plus students expressed their happiness level on a scale of 1 (unhappy) to 10 (thrilled). Then Gohmann gave them permission to trade with their fellow students to increase their happiness score.

The lesson? “Trade benefits everybody,” he said.

The participants, from several high schools including Ballard, St. Xavier, Christian Academy and South Oldham, also had classroom lessons in profit motive and morality; entrepreneurship; collective action problems; and markets and auctions. Several College of Business professors participated.

The students toured Belknap campus and took field trips to GE’s FirstBuild microfactory on East Brandeis, and Papa John’s International headquarters in Jeffersontown, where Schnatter sat down with them and offered insights into how to be a successful entrepreneur.

Jennifer Williams, founder and CEO of Cuddle Clones, was part of a panel discussion March 30 on investors and entrepreneurs that also included investor Christina Bechhold of Empire Angels. The discussion, moderated by Suzanne Bergmeister, entrepreneur-in-residence and assistant director of the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship, was the final event in the 2017 Spring Speakers Series for the John H. Schnatter Center for Free Enterprise.

Cuddle Clones makes stuffed animals and other products from photos of customers’ pets. Williams said she had the idea one day when she was resting her head on her Great Dane, and brought it to fruition when she was going through the entrepreneurial MBA program a few years later.

When it comes to seeking investors, Williams said, “You never know who is going to give you money,” encouraging students to be persistent.

Williams told students gathered in the PNC Horn Auditorium that her company has skyrocketed from $135,000 in revenue in 2013 to $2.3 million in 2016.

Bechhold told students that the most important part of building a business is having the right team, and investors look for strong teams with members that fill in each other’s gaps when evaluating an opportunity.

She said entrepreneurs need to be ready to accept rejection graciously and to always remember that honesty is the best policy.

“There will be people who say ‘yes,’” she said.

The event marked the end of the second year of programming for the Schnatter Center.