PRESQUE ISLE — Aroostook County students have won the top three spots in the Junior Achievement Titan Challenge.
More than 100 high school student teams from across the state competed in the Feb. 11 event at various locations in Maine. This year, Aroostook County had the most teams (25) in the event that took place at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
Junior Achievement of Maine designed a day-long business strategy competition for youngsters that was orchestrated through an Internet-based simulation. The competition was designed to unleash creativity, test leadership and demonstrate the competitive nature of the free enterprise system in a global marketplace.
Taking first place was a team from Van Buren High School that each earned a $1,000 scholarship for their victory; winning first place were Isabel Parent, Kiley McDonald and Emily Dumond. Caribou High School’s Evan Desmond, Caleb Hunter and David Hunter took second and earned a $500 scholarship each. Maria Espinosa, Elijah Verhoff and Ben Ezzy of the Caribou Regional Technology Center received $250 scholarships for their third-place achievement.
President of Aroostook Partnership for Progress Bob Dorsey served as a team mentor during the competition. He said Junior Achievement serves as a model to get youngsters better acquainted with business and becoming an entrepreneur.
Essential to this event are the sponsors and the mentors. Once again, Aroostook County companies and business folks contributed their time and funding to make this event happen.
“The County JA effort is spearheaded by Mark Wilcox of Dead River who has provided outstanding leadership and support that has grown the local effort and this event significantly over the last three years,” said Dorsey. “The Partnership is involved because retention of students in The County to fill our 18- to 44-year-old workforce is very important and getting students exposed to business principals early is a real advantage. You never know, one of these students may well start up a business that thrives in Aroostook and wouldn’t that be great.”
Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students in grades K-12 about entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs.
