The students, representing the Junior Achievement of Central Upstate New York (JACUNY), are one of the 15 finalist teams chosen to compete in the three-day national event conducted in the nation’s capital June 22-24.The five are part of a nine-member BOCES team that founded a company called 9 Roots as part of their participation in the JA Company Program®. Due to program limitations, only five members of 9 Roots can make the trip to D.C. They are Jared Cornell, Ben Daniels, Sam Kuchinski, Kelsey Morgan and Zach Wyatt. The other team members include Julia Allen, Ellen Armstrong, Brian Tableman and Alejandro Kashani.
The 15 teams of five students each will vie for four different awards at the NSLS event. The student companies will be assessed on their financial performance, individual team members’ personal and professional development, on a self-produced commercial about their product or service, on their team’s live presentation to a panel of business leaders, and on their company’s performance at an Entrepreneurship Expo on Capitol Hill.
Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their future, and make smart academic and economic choices. JA programs are delivered by corporate and community volunteers, and provide relevant, hands-on experiences that give students from kindergarten through high school knowledge and skills in financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship. Today, JA reaches 4.5 million students per year in 115 markets across the United States. Junior Achievement of Central Upstate New York (JACUNY) delivers programming to students in a 25 county region throughout Central and Update New York State. JACUNY has offices in Rochester, Syracuse and the Twin Tiers. To learn more about JA of Central Upstate New York, visit www.jacuny.org.
Pictured (l-r): Front, Julia Allen, Samantha Kuchinski, Kelsey Morgan. Back, Julie Keenan, Jared Cornell, Brian Tableman, Zach Wyatt, Ben Daniels, Alex Kashani and business volunteers Scott Weissman (vice president of M&T Bank) and Dave Culbertson (CEO National Pipe & Plastices, Inc.) Not pictured: Ellen Armstrong.