Free Enterprise Olympics

One thing that I love about being a business student at Saint Mike's is that we have access to a bunch of business competitions. These competitions vary in style - some require presentations or speeches while others require writing a paper or creating a video. They're always a great way to get involved, hone your business skills, & win some money.

It was a cold morning on the Plattsburgh ferry

Jake, Ryan, Meg, Isabelle, & me

Yesterday I got the chance to go to the Free Enterprise Olympics, a competition put on by SUNY Plattsburgh. I actually went to this event two years ago and I had so much fun. The competition has two parts - a speech portion & a creativity contest. One of our team members, Isabelle, competed in the speech contest. I competed in the creativity contest, along with four other teammates.

The competition was a day-long event. The day started with getting picked up by Professor Letovsky & Professor Popovich at about 7:30am. We drove to Plattsburgh, New York via the ferry & made it to SUNY Plattsburgh by about 9:00am.

Professo Popovich, me, Isabelle, Ryan, Jake, Meg, & Professor Letovsky

At the competition, we checked in, grabbed some breakfast, & waited for the speech contest to begin at 9:30am. Once that ended at around 11:30am, it was time for the creativity contest to begin. The Girl Scouts of Northeastern New York pitched us this year's problem for which we needed to find a creative solution. They wanted us to come up with a new product that would fit with their existing cookie program & would appeal to health-conscious people.

We had a half hour to work on the problem in the morning. Then we had an hour for lunch and two more hours to create a presentation. At 4:00pm we had to pitch our product, then we listened to the rest of the presentations. Finally we had dinner at around 6:00pm, had the awards ceremony, & headed home at 8:30pm.

After our win!

Jake, Meg, Isabelle, me, & Ryan

For our pitch, we came up with a new cookie made from oats, honey, dark chocolate, & raspberry. We called them Bright Bites & pushed the fact that their ingredients were wholesome and healthy. We packaged them in hundred calorie packs inside the existing cookie boxes.

Our pitch went so well. Our team really worked well together & we had a lot of fun throughout the day. We were excited to hear that the judges also liked our idea - we won second place in the team competition!

Overall, I had such a great time. We won a little money & got to spend a day away from school, focusing on solving a fun business problem. Plus, I got to know some other business students outside of class & I got to spend some time with two of my favorite business professors.

The ferry on the way home - those lights are Burlington in the distance

Feel free to email with any questions!