After finishing this spring’s finals, Courtney Arellano will be a junior at Waubonsie Valley High School.
But she’s already managed to earn some national recognition by taking first in the Business Professionals of America’s Virtual Business Challenge.
“My advisors really supported and encouraged me to go for it,” Courtney said. “It wasn’t so much a thing you had to prepare in advance but instead, as I continued through the simulation I learned to better understand how to maximize my profit.”
The Virtual Business Challenge was a competition to see who could run the most successful business in a simulation.
Over three months, Courtney experimented with different business layouts, wages, and prices to see what worked.
“To organize all my data I made a spreadsheet in Excel and I tracked the prices of what we were selling of each services in order to eventually find the best price where I’d cover costs and still have the most customers,” explained Courtney.
Winning the competition earned Courtney a giant check for $1,000 and new knowledge about how to run a business – something that’s bound to be useful for her future.
“My parents are business owners and I’ve always been intrigued with the way they work and run,” said Courtney. “I started to take business classes in high school and that really sparked my interest.”
Courtney’s mom, Saritha Arellano, owns Bricks 4 Kidz Naperville and acts as a consultant to help entrepreneurs get their start ups off the ground.
So it seems like Courtney can thank her mom for some of her business sense.
“We’re really proud of her and I know it wasn’t an easy win for her competing nationwide I know there’s a lot of bright kids across the country and I’m just excited she took this opportunity on herself to do this,” said Saritha.
Though she has another year before she has to decide on college, Courtney does want to pursue a degree in business, entrepreneurship, or marketing.
Naperville News 17’s Blane Erwin reports.
