By Bethany Sanderson/reporter
Four NW students walked away with $75 TCC Bookstore gift cards during a business entrepreneurial competition Nov. 17.
The Business Principles students were given an in-class assignment to break into groups and work on a bed-and-breakfast business plan project.
Each team organized all parts of the plan including financial, marketing and management of the bed and breakfast.
Then winners from each class competed for finalist status.
The business course instructors helped the students along the way, but the ultimate results were by the students themselves, said NW business instructor Julie Russell.
The finalists were then judged by a group of business professionals: Cynthia Harnest and Deborah Liptak from the Small Business Development Center, Jon Perry from DFW Card Services, Bethany Detrich from Leadership Growth Partners and Karen Kraft from Decision Analysts.
Josh Teel, Chris Curry, Logan Stanley and Jared Escobedo won the competition.
Escobedo never planned on pursuing a career in business, but he thought it a beneficial area to learn.
“This not only is my first business competition, but my first team project to this point in my college career,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, but everyone really came through in the end.”
Russell oversaw the production competition.
Curry, an art major, took the business course because he plans to start his own art studio for media and the gaming industry sometime in the future.
“I believe that this class will be very beneficial to me in the coming years,” he said. “I will probably take other business courses along the way.”
Business major Stanley participated in this type of competition for the first time as well.
“When I went into the competition, I had no idea how big of a deal it was,” he said. “The judges were awesome and gave us a lot of good information, the do’s and don’ts of the business world. It was just an overall awesome experience.”