BHS students place first in state JA contest

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BROOKINGS – A team of Brookings High School students recently placed first in the JA Titan statewide competition hosted by Junior Achievement of South Dakota. 

This virtual strategy competition allowed students to be their own boss and experience real-world decision making while running their own global, virtual business. 

Brookings students from Laura Quail’s class – Daniel Messerli, Jay Szafryk and Jordan Svobodny – competed against 24 other teams from across the state from Nov. 27-Dec. 12. 

Junior Achievement volunteer Dan Beinhorn from Larson Manufacturing in Brookings led the students through the JA Titan program. Student teams acted as a company’s executive officers.

Teams went head-to-head as they strived to make informed, intelligent business decisions on price, production, marketing, capital investment, charitable giving and research and development. 

For their finish, each student received a cash prize. 

Junior Achievement provides hands-on programming in select courses at Brookings that connects what students are learning in the classroom to the real world. Volunteers from the community instruct students on personal and business principles that are relevant to their lives and are the foundation of financial stability and work readiness. 

Last school year, over 2,500 students completed JA. Implementation of JA programming is made possible thanks to community volunteers and funds from businesses, individuals, foundations and special events.