Junior Achievement of Northwestern Ohio hosts its 1^st annual Junior Achievement Business Challenge competition, which will take place Friday, April 24, 2009, 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at The University of Toledo, Student Union rooms 2582 and 2584.

The Junior Achievement Business Challenge is an online, interactive business strategy tournament uniquely designed to unleash student creativity, test leadership skills, and demonstrate the competitive nature of the free enterprise system.

Twenty-nine northwestern Ohio high schools will be participating in the Junior Achievement Business Challenge. Three students from each participating high school establish teams/companies, which strategize to manage their teams/companies successfully. 

Teams/companies make economic decisions on price, research and development, production, marketing, and capital investment, selling the same product as their competitors.  Each round of decisions, online, simulates a business quarter.  Team/company decisions result in a performance index (PI).  The team/company with the highest PI wins!

$45,000 in scholarship money is on the line as students increase their understanding of running a business in a competitive, high-tech marketplace.  Scholarships will be awarded to the top 5 teams/companies.

Twenty-nine volunteers representing the local business community will mentor each team/company, during the competition.

Junior Achievement is the largest, fastest-growing, non-profit economic education organization in the world.  Junior Achievement reaches more than 23,000 northwestern Ohio k-12 students annually.   To become involved, contact the Junior Achievement at (419) 865-5511 ext. 204.