Junior Achievement Business Challenge at Boyceville HS

By Kelsie Hoitomt

BOYCEVILLE – Five Boyceville High School students in the Introduction to Business class were awarded scholarships after their performance on the Junior Achievement (JA) Business Challenge.

The entire class worked with Zach Johnson, a mentor from the 3M company in Menomonie for six weeks in the classroom. The students learned marketing concepts through a simulation. At the end of the six weeks, two teams were chosen from essays the students worked on as well as their effort on the simulation.

Those two teams were part of over 30 total teams from Northwest Wisconsin that competed in the JA Business Challenge. Mentors worked with the students during the competition to help them plan strategies.

“The JA Business Challenge is a terrific learning experience that is competitive and exciting.” shared business teacher Connie Swanson. “It challenges participants to apply their management skills and knowledge of economics.”

The challenge uses a computer simulation called JA Titan, which allows “companies” of students to compete against one another as they manufacture and market the Holo-Generator (the re-imagined, future product that is a handheld item).

The business strategy tournament uses JA Titan to allow students to compete against one another as CEOs of simulated companies. Players plan and execute executive decisions of a fictional company’s strategy: price, production, marketing, capital investment, research and development and charitable giving. An index then ranks each company’s performance to determine the best team.

Students that competed were Kailee Krenz, Katelyn Kegen, Katarina Fuerstenberg, Rebecka Yaeger and Shelby Stewart.

“The girls did not place or receive any scholarships, but they made our school proud by their professionalism and their willingness to compete against much bigger schools,” said Swanson.