Clairemont High takes Junior Achievement crown — again

Team Profit Margin, from Clairemont High School, won the Junior Achievement (JA) Titans of Industry Challenge, an annual competition for students to test their business knowledge and skills against other student teams from around San Diego and Imperial Counties.

Clairemont High team

This is the fourth year in a row that a Clairemont High School team has won the competition. Alan Walter, Clairemont Academy of Business & Technology teacher, uses the virtual business software in his courses to prepare the students each year for the competition.The competition was held Dec. 13 at the University of Phoenix branch in San Diego.

“The students are placed in the seats as CEOs of a virtual corporation and are required to wrestle with sales, profit margins and market share in a high-tech, competitive market," Walter said. "The students enjoy the competition among their classmates, but really look forward to the JA event each year.”

Two teams from Patrick Henry High School placed second and third in the competition. A member of team Anonymous, Bryan Nguyen, was a member of a two-person team last year that scored well enough to compete in the World Global Junior Achievement Titan Challenge in Delaware last summer. He was back again this year with a new teammate and took second place. Third place went to team Black Mambas.

This year, for the first time, along competing with their classmates, the students also went head to head with the teams from Poland. The Polish students joined the competition from across the seas to compete online with the San Diego students.

Junior Achievement of San Diego’s board members — Elizabeth Rice, former president of Innovative Solutions, and Dowling & Yahnke Senior Portfolio Manager Michael Brown — also joined the competition to cheer for the students and offer advice from the professional side.

Next year, Junior Achievement expects to hold a national competition. If the participating teams from San Diego place high in the U.S. competition, they will be invited to the Global JA Titan Challenge in the summer of 2013.

Junior Achievement gives out special thanks to the sponsors—Farrell Family Foundation for the financial support of JA Titan program and University of Phoenix for donating the classroom space for the competition.

Patrick Henry team

For more details on the JA Titan program, please see the program website.

Patrick Henry team