COLUMBIA, Mo. — Over 150 students from 80 Missouri High Schools will prepare for a future in business at the 22nd Annual Missouri Business Week (MBW), to be held in Columbia, June 24-28 on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus. The CENTER for Education & Private Enterprise(R), the not-for-profit foundation of the Missouri Association of REALTORS(R), sponsors the event.
Designed for students who have completed their sophomore or junior year of high school, MBW affords participants the chance to experience the world of business through realistic marketing and management simulations. Challenging workshops that include team-building, leadership, and goal-setting create an enjoyable, but effective learning environment in which students can test their business skills. The real world experience participants gain at MBW is designed to have a lasting effect on their futures.
Upon arrival, participants are divided into “companies,” and together with a professional advisor, market an actual product, competing with the other companies. Each company designates a CEO, creates a corporate identity, designs a web site, creates a projection spreadsheet, marketing plan and produces a TV commercial for their product. Just as in a true business setting, students face ethical and leadership challenges; thanks to the business professionals who volunteer their time, each young student will leave with a solid foundation in the business community and how it works.
Students attend the fast-paced, five-day conference on a $500 scholarship funded by the REALTORS, various service clubs, foundations, small businesses, and major corporations. Professional “company” advisors come primarily from these groups, helping facilitate the week’s events. Proper business ethics, planning, marketing and management style are stressed, as they teach tomorrow’s business leaders how to develop and promote products that can help make our world a better place.
MBW is co-sponsored by the University of Missouri College of Business, and endorsed by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce. For additional information on this year’s program, call 800.403.0101, ext.126 or visit the program’s website at .
[tags]Missouri Business Week, University of Missouri Columbia, CENTER for Education and Private Enterprise, Missouri Association of REALTORS[/tags]
