Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week
Before going into my junior year of high school, I attended a week-long business camp at Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA. It was my first look into what college life would be, living in a dorm and being on a college campus. Teams were assembled randomly so I initially didn’t know anyone in my group. Collaboration and team building were at the utmost importance if we wanted to succeed.
We were put in charge of a hypothetical company and you competed with two other teams in your industry. Our industry was skateboards! As part of group planning, we could pick between two different departments, either the marketing or financial side. I picked the finance team because I have always been good with numbers.
There was about 12 of us on the finance team. I was elected the CFO of the team, so I was the one leading the conversation on where and how much to allocate our resources. Every final decision was run by me but I wanted to include everybody in the decision-making process to form a more democratic process. Everyone had a voice so they would feel apart of the team.
The finance team ended up doing very well placing 1st in our industry and 3rd out of 30 teams overall. We did a great job of distributing our fake money to the right places at the right time. This whole experience taught me that collaborating and communication are key in a business environment. Deadlines were another wake-up call to me, deadlines have to be met in order to stay on task and make others lives easier.
My time at PFEW helped me make the decision I want to go into business, especially the finance/accounting side of it.