MENDOTA - Several Mendota High School business students competed at the NIU Business Olympics on April 6. They were accompanied by MHS business teacher Shawn LeRette.

The NIU Business Olympics is a day-long event hosted by NIU’s College of Business on the DeKalb campus. Aimed at high school and community college students, the NIU Business Olympics event offers multiple business-related competitions to teams. These include:

• NIUIA Valuation Challenge - select and investigate the hypothetical merger of two publicly-traded firms belonging to an assigned industry, write a professional report in the first round and present findings in the second round.
• Big Idea Pitch Competition - pitch an idea for a new business to like-minded entrepreneurs, judges, and potential investors.
• Mobile App Idea Competition - As business transactions move to mobile devices, an App can be the competitive advantage a business needs to succeed. Teams submit a mind-blowing concept to win the prize.
• Lucro Island Budgeting Gamification - Teams compete to see if their Island business will be profitable. Make decisions about room configurations, retail spaces, the “star” level of the hotel, room rates, marketing, and many others to see if their business will out-perform the others for the top prize.
• The Million Dollar Marketing Challenge - Compete to develop an advertising strategy for a fictitious company in the food and beverage industry with a budget of $1 million.

The MHS students competed against 17 other teams from Palatine, Barrington, Maine East, Conant High School, and various other schools.

In the Lucro Island Budgeting competition for the upper division, MHS team Jack Massey and Phalen Hessenberger won 2nd place ($100 each).

In the Lucro Island Budgeting competition for the lower division, Trent Stamberger and Andrew Fittanto won 1st place ($100 each).

Additionally, the team of Abel Guerra, Jack Massey, Preston Lewis, Sonia Duarte and Phalen Hessenberger won 3rd place for the Big Pitch Idea.