Business week is bustling as studetns pitch their products to investors during the business simulation.
A student pitches his team’s product to an investor.
Students pitch their product to an investor during business week at Centralia College.
Business week groups compete for the most investment dollars on Thursday.
Konrad Duncan stands with his presentation board for his company’s product during business week.
Another successful Business Week event is in the books for Centralia and W.F. West high schools as students learned real-world skills by participating in a business simulation which includes creating a company, participating in a trade show, giving a stockholder presentation and pitching their product to investors.
Business Week was held at Centralia College from Monday through Thursday. Juniors from each high school were assigned to a team of 16 — half Centralia students and half W.F. West students.
The 24 teams then created their own “product” out of random household supplies and created a company around it.
“I love learning about how business works. Honestly, it’s one of the funnest things I’ve been apart of,” said Ronald White-Pierce, a junior at W.F. West High School.
Students assumed the roles and jobs of various business personal including CEO, CFO, marketing, and production and work together with fellow classmates and students from another school to make financial decisions.
“I like meeting new people,” said Sierra Jones, a Centralia High School student.
The co-chairs of Business Week are Allen Roe and Amanda Hubbert-Smith, who acted at the stockholders when the group presented their business plans and explained the decisions they made when faced with challenges. Some of the things the presentations focused on included the environmental impact of their product’s production, public perception of the product, dealing with difficult employees, and observing market forecasts. The groups created charts that depicted their company’s profits and losses over the course of the simulation.
Norm Forsyth, a substitute teacher at W.F. West, Centralia and Adna, has been involved in business week for 20 years and this year acted as an investor and business advisor.
“It’s amazing what these kids do. They come up with these products out of their own imagination,” said Forsyth. He gestured to the bustling students in front of him.
“This part of (business week) is about trying to attract investment money and they learn sales skills,” he said.
Krisma Sanchez, a junior at W.F. West, enthusiastically pitched her product, a solar cellphone case that uses light to charge a phone. Sanchez said that Business Week has been a great experience.
“I like that we are learning about the real world and how business and money work,” she said.
On Thursday, the final day of the event, the teams set up their presentation broads in the auditorium of the TransAlta Commons building and pitched their product to “investors”, members from the community, and tried to beat out other companies for the monopoly money investment dollars.
Forsyth said the winning groups in each category receive a certificate.
“This event is about running a company and you find out about the importance of teamwork in business and delegating and having a role in a company. It is very competitive and the students say to their friends ‘hey what’s your company’s stock price?” said Forsyth.
Forsyth recalled that when business week began 20 years ago, W.F. West and Centralia held separate events in their own schools but then about 10 years ago they decided to bring the schools together and hold the event at Centralia College which had the added benefit of exposing the high schoolers to a college campus.
“I’ve been a company advisor ten differnt times and I had a ‘CEO’ that said that she put down on every resume that she was a CEO for a company at business week. I think the program is really worthwhile,” said Forsyth.
