Minnesota Business Ventures 2022 – Career Day SJU

Day two of Minnesota Business Ventures has concluded! Today’s theme was “Career Day,” sponsored by the Arby’s Foundation! A huge thank you goes out to them!

One of our special activities today was Camp Jam. Each company had to complete activities in order to rack up points. It was a close race between companies, but Company B ended in first place with Company C close behind! Congratulations Company B!

After Camp Jam everyone walked over to our keynote speaker, Clare Richards. She spoke about “Developing Your Brand” and gave us tips on how to do so! Not only that, but she gave us her career story and talked about her very own company, Impacks. Thank you for being one of our speakers today Clare!

Next, two companies went to the Career Expo while the other three were off on a scavenger hunt. At the Career Expo, students went around to three of the six companies there. They learned about many different fields, along with some business aspects of the company. Thank you to Polaris, EcoLab, Project Build, Arby’s Foundation, ShapCo, and M Health Fairview for sharing your knowledge and information with us. The companies doing the scavenger hunt were running around the St. John’s campus finding each piece of information and location. Then the companies switched so that everyone could participate in both activities.

We had our first breakout sessions today where students went to two of the three speakers we had! Eric Forstrom spoke on Public Speaking, Courtney Igbo-Ogbonna spoke about Understanding Workplace Culture, and Anna Christiansen spoke on Interviewing. They all brought us relevant information to the camp, helping us prepare for Mock Interviews, Business Plan Presentations, and more. Thank you for being such engaging and interesting speakers for us!

The last large group activity was a picnic dinner and group photo! Every camper seems to have found new friends by now. It is so fun and exciting to see campers smiling from ear to ear, enjoying their new group of friends! Of course, companies also had meetings to work on their business plans. Business plan presentations are already coming up on Thursday. The days are flying by!

Once again, campers enjoyed their Rec Time after a long day! Some played basketball, volleyball, pool, or hung out in the dorms. Everyone was ready for bed by 11:00pm, so sleep was no issue. After all, they have to get their beauty sleep for day three! Once again, thank you to the Arby’s Foundation for sponsoring our Career Day!