Fifteen teams of Utah high school students showcased their Spanish and marketing skills in the Whitmore Global Management Center’s sixth annual High School Business Language Competition.
Participating students were tasked with creating and presenting marketing plans. The plans were to be completed and presented in Spanish and directed toward Utah’s Hispanic Community.
Teams from Skyline High School took first and second place while a team from Taylorsville High School took third place. Winning teams took home cash prizes, with the first-place team receiving $600, the second-place team $300, and the third-place team $100. Each student also got a Whiskware Batter Mixer.
The competition is funded by BYU’s CIBER grant, which is given to seventeen schools around the United States to advance the study and learning of international business.
“This event helps students think about how this skill they’ve obtained is useful,” says Jonathon Wood, GMC managing director. “This is real-world application experience. It pushes them in a direction they don’t normally go.”
Linda Rocha, a Timpview High senior, participated in the competition because she wants to use Spanish in a future marketing career.
“I like marketing a lot, and it’s something that interests me,” Rocha says. “When I started taking business classes, the idea of intertwining Spanish and business intrigued me, so I took this opportunity. I like applying the concepts that we learned in school to a business environment.”
The competition is also meant to connect high school students to the college atmosphere. This year’s competition included a panel of current BYU students who answered questions from teens about using language in various business disciplines.
“Why not plant that seed earlier into the minds of high school students locally?” Wood says. “Some of these students may come to BYU and some may not. Either way, we’re helping students see the possibilities of using multiple languages in business.”
The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems, and entrepreneurship. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,300 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.
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Writer: Laura Spilsbury