Virtual Enterprise at San Juan Hills High School is a collaborative learning environment that offers students hands-on, real-world experience in business. Last week, the SJHHS Virtual Enterprise class competed in the California State Trade Show in Bakersfield against a total of 80 schools and brought home three awards.

In the class, students work together to create and run a mock business as a class.  They all have different roles in the company and work in different departments, just like in a real business.  Students also compete in trade shows against other Virtual Enterprise students and can be awarded in categories like salesmanship, booth set-up, business/marketing plans, and human resources.

This year’s students at SJHHS created “inVEst,” essentially a stock market or trading platform for Virtual Enterprise companies.

The Business Plan Team of juniors Emily Wale, Jaden Bryan, and James Wale, along with senior Cole Lowey, earned 7^th place in the state of California, qualifying them for a possible spot to compete in the National Business Plan Competition being held in New York in April.

In order to qualify for this competition, Business Plan Competition students have to formulate a detailed written Business Plan and present it to judges within an 8-10 minute time frame, followed by 10 minutes of questions from the judges.  Students then compete in four rounds of competition, with the field narrowed down each time.

Human Resources associates Isabella Poppen (freshman) and Amanda Fohrman (senior) earned Gold for placing in the top 5 out of 80 competing firms.  Sales associates Diego Harrison (sophomore) and Bradley Armstrong (sophomore) were awarded Silver for placing in the top 10 out of 80 competing firms.