Sanford Regional Technical Center's Academy of Business began preparing for the annual Titan Challenge, which is sponsored by Junior Achievement of Maine, on February 9th. First we had Paul Bourret, a volunteer from Junior Achievement, come and spend the day with both programs to kick off the training and work with the students. From there, Paul returned two additional times to work with the AM students, as the PM students had participated virtually in the challenge last year. From there, students had daily practice sessions in which they competed as business CEOs in the phone industry, experiencing firsthand how an organization evaluates alternatives, makes decisions, analyzes the outcomes of those decisions, and then strategizes what to do next.
With a focus on financial literacy and insights into the workforce, the JA Titan Challenge brings business economics to life. At SRTC, students prepared for the challenge both working individually and working as part of a team to make financial decisions about production, marketing, research and development (R&D), and corporate social responsibility (CSR). They begin to see how every choice made in an organization relates to its future success.
Students did not miss content during these practice sessions, as the time spent gave them hands-on experience doing the following:
● Predicting and identifying various trade-offs based on business decisions
● Applying the profit equation
● Using a budget as a strategy to monitor income, expenses, and other financial records
● Expressing the importance of profit to the success of a business
● Describing why R&D and marketing expenses are considered investments
● Analyzing how a company can be a good community partner and be socially responsible
After all of this preparation and experience, 21 students represented Sanford Regional Technical Center as they traveled to the Idexx campus in Westbrook on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 to compete against 68 other teams throughout the state of Maine. Eight teams of two to three students were assigned to volunteer mentors from Junior Achievement from various business and industry organizations throughout southern Maine.
Pictured is Sanford Regional Technical Center’s Academy of Business Team SRTCEight, who were the Region Winners for the event. The team consisted of students Delaney Allard (Noble HS), Tyler Chase (Wells HS) and Devyn Hussey (Massabesic HS). Congratulations to the Academy of Business and Team SRTCEight for a job well done!