According to one crafty CEO, the beautiful thing about competition in business is that without it, we wouldn’t be motivated to improve. With that being said, let the games begin. 

Last Thursday, approximately 200 students from regional Nebraska and South Dakota high schools went head to head to unleash their inner sharks as they competed in various areas of business at Wayne State’s annual Business Competition Day.  

Students were challenged in everything from Accounting I to Keyboarding Speed Timing to Web Wizardry. First, second and third place were awarded a scholarship of $500, $300 and $200, respectively, to grant one lucky student the opportunity to pursue their love for business at Wayne State College in the fall. 

“Business Competition Day serves a variety of purposes.  For Wayne State College and especially the School of Business,” Business professor and coordinator for the big day Patricia Arneson said. “One reason that schools attend is because their students’ participation is a form of direct assessment; how students perform in a variety of academic events is a reflection of their high school business program.”

The School of Business & Technology sponsored the event, alongside business organizations such as Pi Omega Pi and Sigma Beta Delta honor societies. Arneson is in charge of coordinating the event and has done so for many years. 

“She has Business Competition Day down to an art form.  She knows business education and the business ed teachers in the whole state —seriously,” business professor, Dr. Pat Lutt said. “She probably will not mention this, but she was named in either 2012 or 2013 the National Business Educator of the Year.  She is that good.”

With tremendous talent, come tremendous results. 

The top three ranking schools were Vermillion, South Dakota, 1st place; Ponca, 2nd place; and Columbus Lakeview tied with Stanton, 3rd place. 

Columbus Lakeview High School captured first place honors in both the YouTube Advertising event, the Web Wizardry event to design a website for a home-based business and ranked first in the Business Plan competition.  

Alisha Sullivan of Ponca was “Outstanding Sales Person” for the Sales Presentation event. Haley Pierce of West Point-Beemer won the Keyboarding I Timed Writing three-minute event, Brooke Cooper from Creighton won the Keyboarding II Timed Writing five-minute event and business teacher Jan Went from Columbus Lakeview won the Faculty Type-off.

“Because of this, it is an excellent recruiting tool for our Business programs. When we query students in our college classes, ‘Who attended Business Competition Day here as a high school student?’” Arneson said. “The amount of hands raised is astounding.”