Sumner Hill students train for Business Challenge
Clinton Public School District
Dr. Tim Martin, Superintendent of Schools
Media Contact: Sandi Beason, APR
Press release by CPSD communications intern Lexey Monceaux
CLINTON — Ten students in Bradley Pope’s Personal Finance class at Sumner Hill Junior High School are jumping into the virtual business world.
These ten students will be competing in CapsimCore, a business simulation that puts them in charge of running their own company. The students are split into two teams, each running their own virtual business. Both teams are up against five other groups from various schools.
Each team is responsible for managing and making all decisions when it comes to their company. Both teams will take their company through four stages:
- Research and Development to invent and then revise their product,
- Marketing to set prices and promotion goals as well as sales forecasting,
- Production to determine how many units of their product they will manufacture, and
- Finances where they will make sure their company has enough resources to run for a year.
The students will be competing for eight weeks, going through eight years’ worth of financial decisions for their companies. Each week the students will work together in their teams to assess where their business is and how they can improve it. By Friday all their decisions for the businesses will be submitted and each team will see where they stand in the market.
These two teams are the first to compete from Clinton, but are excited and ready.
“I think we’ll be able to continue moving up our position and we’ll do well,” said Haley Hathaway, while working with her team in a training session. “We’ll help each other.”
Many of the students are looking at this competition as a lens for the future, taking note if they like making these decisions and projecting that onto potential college decisions.
Pope is excited for his students to go through this competition, and he feels that the students on both teams hold a strong enough interest in finances, showed a good business savvy, and are capable of working on a team well.
“They know that these businesses are their responsibility, and they are making the decisions," He said. "I said, ‘Here are your resources, I am a resource, but this is your project’, and they have taken it to heart.”
The teams at Sumner Hill are thrilled for the competition, and so is Principal Christie Claxton.
"I am excited not only because this is a great experience and they are learning, but because they are able to network and meet people outside of Clinton, and Mississippi and extend their reach," she said.
Mr. Pope would love to see this competition expand further throughout the state and really get kids excited about learning and preparing themselves for a financially responsible future. At the end of the eight weeks each team will make a professional presentation to the board of directors via video call, where they will defend their decisions and exhibit their thought process.
“It is this type of thing that prepares students for their futures, and I am excited to be a part of it,” he said.
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