For more information:
Wendy Walleigh
408-988-8915 x208
wwalleigh@jascc.org
On Wednesday, December 4, 2002, local high school teams will present their Junior Achievement student companies' products, business plans and entrepreneurial challenges to a panel of judges who are among Silicon Valley's most dynamic leaders. This event is hosted by Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship who have a natural match of interests with Junior Achievement (JA). JA's mission is to ensure that every child in America has a fundamental understanding of the free enterprise system. The Center's mission is to enhance the body of knowledge, teach the theory, and foster the art of innovation and entrepreneurship, which is the core of our free enterprise system.
The student teams come from local high schools using JA Economics, which is a semester-long curriculum for seniors that incorporates the development and operation of real businesses, with real profits and stock options. December 4 is JA's first competition, with awards and scholarships to the top teams. The goal is to have several student company teams compete each spring and fall. "We are pleased to bring these outstanding students together with some of Silicon Valley's most dynamic business leaders. The interaction between students and judges will be very insightful to both. We look forward to starting a great tradition on December 4 that will help Silicon Valley develop its next generation of workforce and business leaders," said Elaine Curran, President of JA of Silicon Valley & Monterey Bay, Inc. Representing the best of Silicon Valley's leaders, the judges, speakers and other audience participants will be able to see how creative, intelligent and well organized our Valley's high school students can be.
The JA student companies will be assessed by a very distinguished panel of judges, including several Laureates from Junior Achievement's Business Hall of Fame (noted with asterisks). Judges, who will apply their business insights to Junior Achievement-based assessment criteria, include: Maryles Casto* of Casto Travel, Ray Demere on JA's National and Local Boards of Directors and HP retiree, Papken der Torossian* of NANOmetrics, Steve Kirsch* of Propel, Boris Lipkin on JA's local Board, Bill Miller* of Stanford University (Professor Emeritus), Dan Perez* of Solectron, and John Sobrato, Sr.* of Sobrato Development Company.
Junior Achievement's Student Company Competition will be kicked off by Patrick Guerra, Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business. SCU Marketing Professor Fred Hoar—retired CEO of Miller Shandwick PR firm--will be the Master of Ceremonies. There are many other ongoing associations between Junior Achievement and Santa Clara University. Student organizations—from Women in Business and Accelerated Cooperative Education (ACE) to Retail Management Institute—teach in local elementary schools using Junior Achievement classroom curricula. Several JA Business Hall of Fame Laureates are Santa Clara graduates, including Father Paul Locatelli, SCU President and John Sobrato, Sr. In addition many SCU alumni actively support Junior Achievement. "Junior Achievement is an integral part of the free enterprise system. There is no mystery as to why America has such a creative, resourceful and resilient economy. It begins with lessons learned early in our educational process. As a portal to Silicon Valley, and in concert with JA, we will continue to make a positive impact on our youth--on a global basis," according to Pat Guerra.
But this event really all comes down to impacting the students. Students will get a flavor of what it's like to both go up against competitors and "pitch" their company to potential funders and customers. And in small breakout sessions, students will gain insights from outstanding business leaders who have helped shaped this Valley. Most importantly, Junior Achievement believes that the Student Company Competition will also inspire success. We hope students will be inspired to reach for their dreams because they know that their community cares and supports them. And we hope that the business and academic communities will be inspired to volunteer and to expand their support to shape the next generation of Silicon Valley workers and leaders.
Contact mprado@jascc.org and 408-988-8915 to attend the event on Wednesday, December 4 at 3:30pm in the Benson Student Center.
Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley & Monterey Bay is the premier K - 12 economic education organization. Globally, Junior Achievement is the largest and fastest-growing nonprofit economic education organization, annually teaching 6 million elementary, middle school and high school students in over 110 countries. Junior Achievement's mission is to ensure that every child in America has a fundamental understanding of the free enterprise system. Since 1953, Junior Achievement has partnered with businesses, communities and schools from Silicon Valley to Monterey Bay to teach young people the principles of free enterprise so that they understand business and economics and are workforce-ready. Only Junior Achievement teaches K - 12th grade students about the relevance of school to their future success by using community and business role models to bring our classroom programs to life. In multiple classroom visits, these volunteers use their experience and knowledge to help students become workforce-ready by applying critical thinking and school skills to solving real-world problems. As a result, approximately 27,500 children from this past year will impact Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay communities as successful individuals, workers and consumers. Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley & Monterey Bay: Impacting local economic education one classroom at a time. For more information and to get involved, visit http://www.jascc.org or call 408-988-8915.
About the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business established the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 1998. The center delivers a uniquely Santa Clara stamp on the study of innovation and entrepreneurship; blending research and thought on leadership, applied ethics and a focus on the process of innovation. Located at the center of the most fertile proving ground for new technologies, the center involves both graduate and undergraduate business school students, working with faculty in research in a variety of disciplines.
About The Leavey School of Business
The Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University began in 1926, and was one of the first business schools in the country to receive national accreditation. It undergraduate business program has been recognized as one of the best in California, and it MBA program has been ranked in the nation's top 20 part-time programs. More than 80 percent of its 1,043 MBA students are working professionals in Silicon Valley. For more information, see http://business.scu.edu.
About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located in California's Silicon Valley, offers its 8,054 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees. Distinguished nationally by the third-highest graduation rate among all U.S. masters' universities, California's oldest higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. More information is on line at http://www.scu.edu.
