Local Students Demonstrate Their Entrepreneurial Skills at Regional Junior Achievement Competition

Students from five Minnesota high schools demonstrated their business acumen at Junior Achievement (JA) of the Upper Midwest’s Company of the Year Competition, held April 20, 2017, at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota campus.

Students from Maple Grove High School received top honors for their business, Crimson Cafe. The company provides students with convenient and quality coffee.

As part of the JA Company of the Year competition, high school entrepreneur teams created a presentation about their company, presented to a judging panel of business leaders, and answered questions about their product or service. The Maple Grove students took top honors by most effectively running a financially sound business and being able to articulate how and why the company performed as it did. Each member of the winning team received a $1,000 post-secondary scholarship courtesy of the Otto Bremer Trust.

Taking second place honors was Mounds View High School for their company Say Sew, that makes customizable pouches and bags out of recycled material. Each team member received a $500 post-secondary scholarship also courtesy of the Otto Bremer Trust. Third place honors went to Vanguard Tech from Edison High School (Minneapolis), a company that created a self-sustaining tool in which advisors are able to reward and motivate students through a point and merit system. Each team member received a $250 post-secondary scholarship.

Designed for students in grades 9-12, the JA Company Program provides students the opportunity to start a real company. They create a product or service, market it and work as a team to operate their own company as part of a school-based organization, club or after-school setting. The program emphasizes business content while providing the opportunity to apply school skills to a real business. This is JA’s original program.

“JA Company Program allows students to create, market and operate an actual business,” said Gina Blayney, President & CEO of Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest. “This immersive, experiential program takes students out of the classroom and puts them in real life situations, where they learn how to be leaders, work as a team and problem solve. These 21st century skills prepare today’s young people to be tomorrow’s business leaders.”

The competition also named the fourth annual Otto Bremer Student Entrepreneur of the Year. This year’s recipient is Ian Lim from Maple Grove High School and member of the first place JA Company Program team, Crimson Cafe. Lim received a $1,000 post-secondary scholarship sponsored by Otto Bremer Trust.

The first and second place teams from the Minnesota competition will have a chance to apply to compete at the national JA Company of the Year competition held in Washington, D.C., in June 2017.

Judges for the event were Justice Sikakane, Salesforce Administrator/Configuration Developer at Cargill; M.D. Mehedi, entrepreneur lead of Minnealloy Magnetics; Jen Alstad is the founder of bswing; Brian Lipschultz is the Co-CEO and Trustee of the Otto Bremer Trust; and Mark Davis, Chairman of Davisco Foods International.

Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest received $1 million from the Otto Bremer Trust, St. Paul, to establish the Otto Bremer Entrepreneurship Fund, a multi-year initiative to promote entrepreneurship and its opportunities to students in Minnesota, North Dakota and western Wisconsin. JA Company Program is a key element of this initiative.

About Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest

Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest has been serving students in Minnesota, North Dakota and western Wisconsin since 1949. This school year we will reach more than 162,500 students in grades K-12 with financial literacy, college and career readiness and entrepreneurship education. Our programs are implemented by nearly 10,000 volunteers, mostly business professionals, who share their skills and experience to motivate and inspire students to succeed. Learn more at www.jaum.org.