Today is our second day at Minnesota Business Venture! The theme for today is “Career Day”. This theme encourages students to learn more about career opportunities and explore different career paths. This helps students to think about their future and develops the steps needed to take to achieve their career path. It would be impossible today without our sponsor: The Arby’s Foundation and Arby’s Restuarant chains. We are so grateful for Arby’s support throughout these years and for giving us the opportunity for our students to explore their futures.
After our students finished up their company meetings this morning, they started getting ready for one of our MBV traditions: “Camp Jam!” Camp Jam involves a lot of team building challenges filled with outdoor activities such as the human knot, company chants, creating company banners, riddles and scarf juggling. By doing these activities campers develop leadership skills, communication skills and creativity! The goal of camp jam is to finish these challenges the fastest, so in the end, Company D won!
Students then gathered in the auditorium for Terri, our Keynote speaker of the day. Terri talked to our students about her small bakery business : “The Queen of Cakes”, that she has owned for over 20 years. She gave the students advice on what it takes to run a business and how she got through all the hardships. Terri was very entertaining in which while she was giving the keynote, she was decorating a cake onstage in front of everyone! It was incredible to see, and the students were amazed! Terri is a great example that there are so many different career paths you can go into and you do not always need a degree to be successful. She showed our students that if you put great effort and commitment into something, you can achieve your goals.
After that amazing keynote, the students had a small break for lunch and then went to their company meetings to discuss their business plans. After that, the campers went into breakout sessions and went to the career expo. There were three breakout sessions that the campers could choose from: Interviewing, understanding workplace culture, and technology and today’s workplace. This was very informational for students in which they got a closer look at what a workplace is like and essential information they need on how to be successful and stand out. At the career expo, there were 4 stations where students got to explore different passions and companies and got to network with one another. Both activities were beneficial for the students, in which they learnt a lot about the working world and how to network and be successful in the business world.
Lastly, we had a barbeque picnic dinner outside with all the staff, campers and CEOs. Then we took the annual group photo with everyone in it. We finished off the night in our company meetings further discussing the company business plans.
