Inaugural Marymount competition gives O'Connell students a taste of business school.
Congratulations to Bishop O’Connell seniors Aisling Flett, Ava Godfrey and Emma Lavellee, who took top honors at last week’s Business Model Design Competition held at Marymount University.
The trio was part of an O’Connell cohort who participated in the inaugural high school Business Awareness Initiative, hosted by faculty members at Marymount’s School of Business. Over the past three weeks, 21 Bishop O’Connell juniors and seniors took part in half-day learning sessions on business-related subjects, where they formed six teams and developed six different business plans. The culmination of the program was the Business Model Design Competition, where each team presented their projects to a panel of judges, made up of representatives from Marymount, Bishop O’Connell and the Arlington Economic Development Office.
The winning business model was “Limelight Theaters,” a unique movie experience for a variety of age groups and interests. For this top team, winning was nice, but the journey that got these students to that moment was what mattered most. “As someone who intends to enter the business field, this experience was extremely valuable in providing me a glimpse of how to build a business and market it to others,” said team member, Aisling Flett.
Other well-conceived student business plans included a flexible mobile phone magnet, an online retail clothing concept, a roommate matching app, a cryptocurrency fund manager, and vehicle charging stations.
Dr. Carlo Ninassi, Assistant Professor of Management at Marymount, served as the faculty lead. He designed this high school pilot program as a scaled-down version of a 15-week college program he offers at Marymount.
“It’s always a delight to work with students that are intelligent, approachable and creative, not to mention pure fun, as were the students from Bishop O’Connell…these young men and women are what we all aspire to be - naturally gifted leaders,” he said. “Watch for great things from each of them in the future!”
Bishop O’Connell’s program coordinator, Ms. Whitney Webb, and business and technology teacher, Mr. Bill Betthauser, supported the project and guided the students throughout the process.
“This was an incredible and meaningful opportunity for Bishop O’Connell,” said Ms. Webb. “Our students were enthusiastic, engaged, motivated and so very eager to learn, and their final presentations were all phenomenal. I am so grateful to Dr. Ninassi for his vision and his commitment to this program’s success.”
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View the March 4 Business Model Design Competition program HERE.
Pictured below – Head of School Bill Crittenberger served on the judges’ panel for the competition. He is joined here by Limelight Theater team members Aisling Flett, Ava Godfrey, and Emma Lavallee, along with O'Connell faculty mentors Bill Betthauser and Whitney Webb.
