The Timothy Christian High School VEI program placed 1st  in the IL-WI Business Plan State Competition, which qualified them to represent IL-WI at the National Competition in April in New York City. This is the second year in a row with a 1st place finish. Congratulations to the Business Plan Team (pictured): Tyler Wolterstorff, Adriana Veliz, Jon Tameling, Mykaela Pettigrew, Ethan Munk, and Sadie Orange.

For the Business Plan Competition, the VEI students prepared a business plan, which included a company description, product decision rationale, marketing plan, and financial data. This represented 30% of the final score. The Oral Competition portion represented the other 50% and the Question & Answer Session represented 20%. 

VEI is a student-directed program where they run a virtual business in the classroom. This is an international program and there are over 3000 firms around the world similar to the one that can be found at Timothy Christian High School. The course is not run like a classroom; it is run like a workplace where the students are in various departments and there are chief officers. Students are responsible for making daily business decisions and running the business for one fiscal year starting with the business and ending with an annual report. What you see happening each day in a business is what is happening in the VEI classroom day in and day out.

Throughout the year, students have an opportunity to compete in different competitions and attend trade shows where they have to set-up a booth and sell their products. The course takes what they have been learning in the classroom and applies it to a real-world situation. Though there is core content that students are learning, the secondary curriculum (and one the instructor believes most important) is the development of leadership, conflict resolution, problem-solving, speaking skills and much more.

If you are interested in seeing the VEI firm in action, they would love for you to come by for a visit.  Contact Mrs. Kendra Lee (lee@timothychristian.com) to set-up an appointment.  To learn more about the VEI program visit www.veinternational.org