When it comes to “Shark Tank,” those contestants don’t have anything on Bridgeport High School junior Ella Flowers.  She and her team won First Place in the First Annual West Virginia University Business Camp Competition, sponsored by the College of Business and Economics in July.

 

No stranger to the business world, Flowers is an active member of BHS’s DECA organization, which prepares leaders in marketing, management, hospitality and tourism.  She competed at the state level in entrepreneurship and was selected to attend the International Thrive Academy in California last Spring. 

 

“I have always been interested in creating a business,” she said.  “The WVU Business Camp gave me the opportunity to learn how to develop a business plan and implement it in a realistic simulation.”

 

The camp consisted of 20 participants from around the state, with Flowers being the only representative from Bridgeport.  After assessing students’ personality traits, facilitators grouped them and assigned each member of the group a job.  Flowers was selected as the head of Human Resources for her group, giving her the opportunity to develop hiring procedures, conduct mock interviews and give input on the literary press business they developed.

 

“We analyzed the business for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and identified the target market for the business,” she said.  “From there, we determined which jobs would be outsourced, how to recruit qualified applicants, and learned about the economic impact our business would have.”

Just like the college students, the teens conducted business on the main campus of WVU and they had plenty of free time to bond with other participants while visiting the recreation complex and other campus sites. 

 

Flowers, who is also active in the Humane Society Club and the Drug Free Club at BHS, really enjoyed the consulting side of the project.

 

“I liked looking at the overall project and giving input for how to improve it,” she said.  “The leadership role I was given allowed me to analyze the market, the products and the promotion and work with the team to win First Place in the final presentation.”

 

Local professionals served as judges for the event and Senators Machin and Capito spoke to the students about the importance of entrepreneurship in the Mountain State.