Students get early exposure to the business world

From March 21 to 23, 11 juniors got a crash course in the world of business at an event called the Enterprise Leadership Conference.

The conference, hosted by the Rotary Clubs of Campbell, Santa Clara, Saratoga and Sunnyvale, at Asilomar Conference Center was designed to provide students with a basic working knowledge of business and incorporate important fundamentals, according to event co-chairs Steve Rainbolt and Miles Barber.

Junior Yifat Amir said, “I learned how to make a business plan, what kind of jobs are required to run a business, what capital is, how it can be made and used and how to present to venture capitalists in hope of receiving a loan.”

A group of 40 students were selected by guidance counselors and invited to attend an informational meeting on the conference during a lunch period last semester. Two previous ELC attendees shared their experience at the meeting and students turned in their applications in mid-December.

Conference attendees spent many hours each day listening to keynote speakers discuss their personal business history and explain what made them successful. Speakers were present from many different professions and included Jed York, CEO of the San Francisco 49ers, and Scott Hammond, VP of Cisco Systems.

Guest presenter Helen Pasterino, CEO of Petria Inc., discussed capital, which not only refers to money but also to the relationships that people acquire over time. At the end of her speech, Pasterino left the group of students with 10 silver dollars that were to be passed from one person to another after a display of great leadership or follower skills.

The students at the conference were divided into 10 teams and tasked with creating a hypothetical business and product. Teams spent about half the day together and worked late into the night to develop their products and build their business plan. Business plans included product descriptions, marketing strategies, income statements, human resources information and more.

“To know that a group of strangers in high school can bond so strongly is an exhilarating thought that tells us there’s no excuse for bad teamwork,” said junior Johnny Chang.

At the end of the conference, teams presented to a group of five judges posing as venture capitalists who scored and ranked the presentations.

At ELC, students learned not only more about business but more about themselves. They started great friendships and became aware of many opportunities they hadn’t previously heard of.

“The experience really motivated me to believe in myself and my ideas. It also opened me to a new realm of possibly careers I could pursue,” Amir said. “The experience I had and the people I met are simply irreplaceable.”

This was only the third year that ELC has been held in this area, but they plan to continue the event and educating students for many years to come. All of the 60 students, representing 16 different schools, who attended the conference learned a lot and would recommend it to future students.

“We imbued so many great lessons, above all, ‘Service above self,’ the motto of the Rotary,” Chang said.