Fifty-eight high school teams from across Utah were given three weeks to develop a new marketing plan for the Busankam Wola Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides economic and vocational support for women in Ghana. The teams’ work culminated during the High School Business Language Competition when they presented their plans to panels of judges and competed for prize money. The challenge? None of their work could be in English.
The event, hosted by the Whitmore Global Business Center (GBC) at the BYU Marriott School of Business, has grown over the years, ballooning from 8 teams competing in Spanish in 2010 to 58 teams presenting in Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, and German in 2024, which featured the largest number of entrants to date. Because only one heritage speaker is allowed per team, most students competed in a language they learned outside the home.
Competing teams had two chances to present how they would take the foundation’s products—customized elephant grass baskets woven by Ghanaian women the foundation supports—to a market that speaks the team’s competition language. “I think, more than anything, the competition helps the language come alive for my students,” says Ryan Wells, a teacher for one of the two Spanish-speaking teams from Taylorsville High School. “The students see the language used in a real context.”
A student who competed on one of the two Taylorsville Chinese-speaking teams has seen the competition have a direct impact on her language skills. “I didn’t know any business terms in Chinese before this competition, and now I have a whole new set of vocabulary,” she says.
Some students decide that competing once isn’t enough. A member of a West High School German team came back this year for her second competition because of how positive her first experience was. She explains, “It was a really good business experience, and it also really helped me learn specific German language skills through business and marketing.” She relates that the competition also helped her develop her public speaking skills and meaningful friendships.
The winners of each language were announced during the closing award ceremony. Teams from West High School took first place in Spanish, Arabic, and German; French was won by Timpview High School, and Chinese was secured by Mountain Ridge High School.
GBC Managing Director Jonathon Wood hopes students come away from the competition with a better understanding of how their second language is more than just a graduation requirement. He believes that the ability to work alongside different languages and cultures gives students a competitive edge as they enter a world that’s increasingly global, both culturally and professionally. “There are markets and opportunities that, if we ignore international business, or the possibilities for the future, we’re just not going to be competitive in the world,” he says. “We need to be thinking global.”
The GBC is one of 16 Centers for International Business Education Research (CIBER) that receives support from the US Department of Education to further international business efforts and research; the CIBER grant is part of what makes the language competition possible. Individuals who would like to learn more about competing, judging, or volunteering for future competitions can contact the Global Business Center for additional information.
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Written by Katie Brimhall