On Apr. 19, six of AHS’ Business Management students competed in the Rotary District 5300 Business Plan Competition. Led by Mr. Caven Shen, the group included sophomore Ashley Chung, junior Marcus Osorio, and seniors Vanessa Chung, Anabell Ru, Lilian Wang, and William Kuang. These students tested their entrepreneurial skills in front of three judges at Huntington Middle School, in San Marino. Other schools that were present included San Marino High School, two Pasadena High Schools, and Claremont High School. AHS’ efforts were well rewarded— Vanessa, Anabell, Lilian, and Ashley received 2nd prize and $300; William and Marcus brought back 3rd prize and $150.

The Rotary District 5300 Business Plan Competition has a name that directly translates to its purpose. Students are expected to produce a business model and offer it three Rotarian judges, who then try to point out possible flaws in both their presentation and the plan itself. Students spend hour upon hour fixing their pitch both in and outside of class in order to make the cut.

Mr. Shen described the process in more detail. “In the Business Management class, the bulk of the students’ business plan is formed. This takes around three months of research and writing, and the end result is about 30 pages long.” After finalizing the perfect product, the students had to “figure out how to pitch it well in front of some CEOs, who are part of the local Rotary Club. Because we have two one-semester classes for Business Management, I pick the best group from first semester and one from second semester.” When being scored, the plan itself takes up half of the points, and the presentation of the idea accounts for the other half.

Mr. Shen found that those “having the willingness to commit to what they’re passionate about definitely makes a huge difference. Students who are chosen to represent the school are very serious about their pitch— and that’s the kind of student that performs the best in product development and in this competition.” The students who compete have to have a strong belief in “themselves, their vision, and their product, as well as lots of motivation to succeed.”

The students themselves agree. Marcus found it “a little stressful when it was decided that [his] group would go, but [they] were able to get together as a group and pull it off successfully in the end.” His group’s idea was to create a hydroponic home garden. When pitching, the judges “wanted to see if [each group] really understood what [they] were doing in each step of creating a business, and how each part ties together.” Meanwhile, Vanessa and her group brought to the table an escape room model. She felt that “not knowing what the competition would be like was the most difficult thing during [their] prep. [They] didn’t base [their] pitch off of past winning pitches or videos of previous rotary competitions, and that was definitely pretty daunting.” When trying to formulate a coherent idea, there was “a lot of revising, basically fine-tuning [their] business plan and performance in order to optimize time and content. Scheduling was also difficult since [they] didn’t have Business Management second semester… meetups had to be efficient.” Both contenders found Mr. Shen’s help to be extremely beneficial. Marcus reflected that despite him having had no prior experience with business, “Mr. Shen really explained everything well and walked us through the process.” Vanessa largely attributed their success to their teacher, expressing her pride “for [her] teammates” and how she was “grateful for Mr. Shen’s guidance,” as “they all made this experience possible.”

In the end, despite the many issues they faced, all of the students performed spectacularly and took away valuable experiences that will benefit them in the future. Congratulations to all of the participants, and good luck to them in all of their future endeavors!

Graphic courtesy of FREEPIK.COM