2012 E-Day draws high school students to North Platte college

Students attending E-Day, front from left: Brenda Aguire, FBLA; Brittany Hixon, Entrepreneurship; McKenzie Crowe, FBLA; Gavin Harsh, FBLA; and Katie Rabas, Entrepreneurship. Back: Emily Tolliver, Entrepreneurship; Spencer Skolout, Entrepreneurship and FBLA; Cody Jankovits, Entrepreneurship and FBLA; Ben Skiles, FBLA and Introduction to Business; Karli Blank, Entrepreneurship; and Miranda Holliday, Entrepreneurship. Not pictured are Entrepreneurship: Michelle Tinglum, Olivia Paz, Ariel Knosp, Dalton Bundy. FBLA: Andrew Messersmith; Introduction to Business: Robert Morgan, Chase Midkiff, Cady Matson, Jon Spilinek, James Hickert, Spencer Powell, Megan Rokusek and Kelsey Collicott.

NORTH PLATTE, Nebraska -- On Feb. 28, 23 students from McCook High School made a trip to participate in E-Day at the South Campus of Mid Plains Community College in North Platte. This trip was sponsored in part with funds from the America's Promise program at McCook National Bank and contributions from the FBLA chapter at McCook Senior High School.

The Mid-Plains Center for Enterprise combined forces with the business department at North Platte Community College to host the 2012 "E-Day" -- short for Entrepreneurship Day -- for area high school students at the college. Volunteers from the NPCC and McCook Community College chapters of Phi Beta Lambda, the student business organization, helped with the event.

E-Day was designed to help students develop the critical entrepreneurship skills necessary to survive and succeed in today's business world. Approximately 150 students from 11 area high schools attended the event.

During the day, 21 teams of students created a fictitious business from the ground up. The process included designing a logo for the business; developing a marketing plan; filling out a loan application; creating a budget; visiting with a realtor and producing a physical store layout; and filming a television commercial for their company.

The teams were each required to present their business to judges and try to convince them they would be successful. Following the presentations, awards were presented to the top three teams.

The first place team was Nathan Forbes of Arthur, Bailey Ross of Maywood, Waylon Carpenter of Mullen, Wade Waugh of Paxton, Cord Hesseltine and Matthew McLeod of Thedford, and Bradee Manary of Wallace. .

Second place winners were Charmane Macomber of Arthur, Nancy Estrada of Cozad, Rebecca Stevens of Gothenburg, KathRann Sides of McCook, Garrett Perlinger of Paxton, and Jared Arensdorf of St. Patrick's.

In third place were Brad Hoard of Anselmo-Merna, Crystal Moore of Gothenburg, Dotti Dodson of Maywood, Katie Rabas and Emily Tolliver of McCook, Jordan Holzfaster of Paxton and Tanner Drews of Thedford.

The McCook High School students participating were members of the Introduction to Business and Entrepreneurship classes and the FBLA chapter sponsored and taught by Bill Ramsay and Barry Schaeffer . Part of the requirements for the America's Promise grant from MNB is the performance of a community service act. The FBLA chapter performs a penny war each year for the benefit of a charity of the chapter's choice. This year the chapter penny war benefited the McCook Toy box and March of Dimes. $200 was raised this year, $100 dollars to be donated to each charity. The chapter is also planning a beautification project for the flower boxes around the high school; cleaning out the boxes and planting new flowers in the boxes.

By Barry Schaeffer and Mid Plains Community College.