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Harris, who runs his own jewelry-making business, was commended by Asher Epstein of the University of Maryland for his flexible approach to conducting business in the marketplace.

Epstein, the director of the University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, was one of the guests at Heather Hills Elementary’s National Entrepreneur Week celebration on Monday.

Joining Epstein was U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Dist. 5) of Mechanicsville; Paul Kappel, vice president of Operations at the Junior Achievement of the National Capital Area program; and county schools CEO John E. Deasy.

Hoyer asked the class who they thought was the most important person in the room.

The pupils made several guesses, naming individuals such as Hoyer himself and the school’s principal Patsy Hosch.

‘‘The most important person in this room is your teacher, Ms. Kathleen Donahue,” Hoyer replied. ‘‘Teachers are important because they give us the skills we need to succeed.”

More than a third of the class raised their hands when Epstein asked how many of them were interested in owning their own business. Epstein told them being a good entrepreneur called for discipline and requires telling the truth at all times.

‘‘Do you have to have a lot of money to start your business?” sixth-grader Christopher Perry asked. ‘‘What if you don’t have a lot.”

Epstein said that most entrepreneurs do not start off with a lot of funds, but gradually grow their businesses.

‘‘When you first start your business, you should have a small number of employees,” Epstein advised. ‘‘Once you start making more money and bringing in more customers, you can increase the number of people working for you.”

Kappel told the children that small businesses are an important segment of the U.S. economy.

‘‘Being an entrepreneur is a great opportunity for you to be creative and innovative,” Kappel said.

During the event, the class participated in a game of ‘‘Entrepreneur Jeopardy,” in which two teams got hints about successful entrepreneurs and were asked to guess their names.

Answers included television host Oprah Winfrey, e-Bay founder Meg Whiteman, actress and singer Jennifer Lopez, businesswoman Madame C.J. Walker and movie director and producer Steven Spielberg.

The officials who attended were told that the pupils are learning about the stock market.

Donahue explained that in January, the class was given a list of companies that would air commercials during the Super Bowl.

Donahue had the pupils keep track of how much the companies’ stocks were worth before and after the commercials were televised.

‘‘The students saw that the stock for companies that had Super Bowl ads went up,” Donahue said.

Later this month, the students would choose stocks they want to buy, Donahue said.

Sixth-grader Alieu Wurie said that he enjoyed the event and that someday he hopes to start his own business.

‘‘My favorite video games are Halo and Bully,” Wurie said. ‘‘I like sports games too. If I get to make them I want to be working for myself.”

E-mail Wendy McConnell at wmcconnell@gazette.net.