Youths sparkle at CEO Academy

On June 19, I was privileged to attend the final session of the Junior Achievement CEO Academy at Florida Gulf Coast University's Lutgert College of Business. This weeklong program sponsored by Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida involved 21 high school students from Lee and Collier counties, 15 business and academia leaders and five former Business Hall of Fame laureates.

The students, split into five groups, had four days to work with the business leaders to develop a business plan and to prepare a presentation of same for the final program on June 19. At that time they would have 10 minutes to present their plan, using Power Point, and the panel of the five honorees would judge them. The judges also had 10 minutes during which time they could ask questions and challenge the presenters. When all five teams had completed their presentations, the panel deliberated and ultimately chose the winner of this competition.

To be present and watch and listen to what these young people had accomplished in four short days was remarkable. Of course, kudos must also go to the business experts who coached them, but to come up with such fabulous ideas and to fully develop a complete business plan in such short time was absolutely remarkable. Those of us in the audience. We all agreed it would take us four days just to come up with an idea, and even then it would probably not be as good as what these students presented.

The winning team chose as its vehicle an electronic bracelet that would be rented by parents visiting a theme park. The bracelet would be applied to the child's wrist and locked in place. The parents would receive a card that would allow them to insert it into any of a series of monitoring stations throughout the park to see exactly where their kids were at that moment. The park would charge $15 for each bracelet rented and before leaving the park, the staff would unlock the bracelet and it would be returned to them. The business plan involved setting up the project and selling it to the theme parks that would then set up the monitoring stations and a central scanning tower that would capture the electronic information. If a child were to leave the park without returning the bracelet or if an abduction would occur and the child was forcibly removed from the park, sensors at all exits would immediately sound an alarm to not only let the staff know that a bracelet is being taken out of the park, but also at what exit. So if abduction were in progress, it would be easy for security to stop the crime and arrest the culprits.

The business plans included complete financials and logistics for accomplishing what was being proposed. During the questioning by the panel, the kids did a remarkable job of providing answers to questions raised and countering challenges that were posed.

To witness such a performance is to see the kind of training that has been and is being provided by Junior Achievement in our schools. If anyone is worried about the future of this country, a demonstration such as the one we witnessed sets aside any such fears.

Junior Achievement needs volunteers from the business world and financial support to expand its programs in the schools that its serves. For those of you familiar with what Junior Achievement accomplishes, please tell your friends. For those not familiar with this wonderful organization, contact Junior Achievement at: 225-2590, or visit their Web site www.jaswfl.org.
— Dr. Max J. Kalm
Bentley Vill a g e