High School Business Heroes 2011

DeGroote | Hamilton, ON | May 5, 2011

W.I.N.K. Co. from Westmount Secondary School. Winners of High School Business Heroes 2011.

On April 30, 2011 High School Business Heroes 2011 took place at McMaster University. It is a business competition for high school students where participants are required to prepare a business plan, market it and present it to a panel of judges in teams of two to four. Along the way, students enrolled within the Business program at McMaster University served as mentors to further aid competitors in their research. In addition, two seminars were held at the DeGroote School of Business to give participants more insight on how to succeed in the competition, which were led by Kristina Fanelli and Laura Graham.

The benefits of this program were two-fold. First of all, high school students had the benefit of participating in an event outside of their classroom setting. The competition offered students the opportunity to expand their knowledge base and enhance skills they need to succeed in the business world.

The challenge this year was to develop a marketing strategy to raise awareness of a community/corporate financial support for Ronald McDonald House Hamilton (RMHH) within the communities it serves. In addition, participants had to demonstrate the viability of their marketing strategy by executing to raise money for RMHH. Twenty-two teams submitted reports with their business plans, which we then cut down to a top five who would present at the closing ceremonies. The closing ceremonies took place on April 30, 2011 from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. at CIBC Hall.

Top five teams:

• The Corporate Marketers from Highland Secondary School: Melony Gavin and Nikita Rao
• W.I.N.K. Co. from Westmount Secondary School: Tom Ai, Tony Ai, William Lee, and Kelvin Vuu
• DiaLiaNam Co. from Westmount Secondary School: Anam Vohra, Julia Dinh, and Lydia Loo
• Ahead of the Kurve from Orchard Park Secondary School: Omar Nawabi, Atajan Toyliyev, and nathan Vartanian
• Team Boss from Westmount Secondary School: Muhammed Niazi, Abraham Lin, Omar Nassif, and Jessi Li

After outstanding presentations by the top five teams, judges deliberated and W.I.N.K. Co came out on top as the 2011 High School Business Heroes champions. Second place went to Team Boss, and third to DiaLiaNam Co. Capital Campaign Associate, Janice Shearer, from Ronald McDonald House Hamilton was given a cheque for $988.17 on behalf of the top five teams who put there marketing strategies to the test and raised these funds in the community.