Lewis County Business Week, a local rendition of a statewide program that provides hands-on business simulation experience to local high school juniors, has a new name this year to more closely align with the program’s goals: Lewis County Business Academy.
“Lewis County Business Academy provides students with a practical understanding of business fundamentals, ranging from financial literacy to marketing and entrepreneurial skills,” Kiddin’ Around, a local, family- and children-focused nonprofit that began hosting Business Week in 2022, stated of the program on its website.
The change from Business Week to Business Academy went into effect this year.
A statewide program that invites high school juniors to local chapters for a hands-on business simulation, Lewis County’s rendition of Washington Business Week has changed hands between organizers several times over the years. It has traditionally only included students from Centralia and W.F. West high schools, but expanded to other high schools in Lewis County last year.
This year’s Lewis County Business Academy began Monday, Dec. 16, and continues through Friday, Dec. 20, at Centralia College.
“We are proud to partner with Centralia College to bring the students to the college campus so that they get a glimpse of college life for a week,” Kiddin' Around stated.
At Business Academy, students from the participating schools are blended into small groups. Teams invent a new product and compete with other “companies” over the course of six fiscal quarters. Winners receive bragging rights.
Teams appoint students to the positions of CEO, marketing directors and so forth. Students make decisions about when to take out loans, where to invest money over the course of a fiscal year, and when to adjust product quality and quantity. Teams also create a commercial for their product and present it to “shareholders” on the Business Academy’s final day.
“Each year, we talk to students who had no intention of attending college, but change their mind, and the course of their futures, due to Lewis County Business Academy,” Kiddin’ Around stated on its website. “Each year we are blown away by the students who work hard in teams with people they have never met to create something new and exciting. Successful businesses are part of what makes a community thrive and we are continuously blown away by these creative and smart students.”
For more information, visit https://www.kiddinaround360.com/business-academy.
