Brentwood High School entrepreneurs headed for national competition
May 15, 2017
Brentwood Home Page
A team of young Brentwood entrepreneurs will be heading to Washington, D.C. next month to participate in the Junior Achievement National Student Leadership Summit.
The students, all members of an entrepreneurship class at Brentwood High School, were chosen to advance to the national competition after winning the statewide Junior Achievement Company Program back in April.
Lisa Nease-Montgomery, who teaches marketing at BHS, made the announcement Monday.
“Amongst all entries across the United States in the Junior Achievement Company Program, a panel of judges selected 15 companies, based on the submitted company report and commercial, to compete [for] top honors in Washington, DC at the NSLS,” she wrote. “It is with great pride that I announce that the Brentwood High company, Good Nashville, has been selected to compete for national honors and college scholarships at the NSLS June 18-22.”
The students formed Good Nashville with the intention of helping those in need locally. The company sells t-shirts and hats customized with the Good Nashville logo, an image of the Nashville skyline with the three stars from the Tennessee state flag superimposed over it.
All profits from the company go to the Nashville Rescue Mission. Thus far, Good Nashville has sold 213 shirts and 55 hats, for a total of $2,099 in net profits, Nease-Montgomery said.
The company concept came in the midst of a brainstorming game in class one day. Students were divided up into pairs, with each pair coming up with a noun and an adjective. Those nouns and adjectives were then swapped among groups.
“One group got good as the adjective and Nashville as the noun,” Nease-Montgomery said. A student liked the sound of that and said we should “have a company called Good Nashville and make t-shirts, and give the money back to the good of Nashville.”
Good Nashville is not just a classroom exercise. It is an actual company that pays taxes and issues company reports.
It is composed of 15 students who run the company’s various departments, which include supply chain, administration, finance and sales and marketing. Additionally, Good Nashville has executives — a CEO, a CFO and so on.
In Washington, D.C., five students from the class will represent Good Nashville: Emily Arnholt, Cody Mashburn, Luke Moreshi, Kianoosh Pazooki and Clay Cox. They will be one of 15 teams competing.
“The 15 teams will appear before a panel of judges who measure the company’s performance against competition criteria and each other,” Nease-Montgomery wrote. “The winning teams must balance company performance with each member’s personal development. Creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication are key to success.”
The BHS students will also set up a trade fair booth at an Entrepreneurship Expo on Capitol Hill.
Altogether, the winning team will be decided based on its presentation before the judges, the quality of its expo booth, its company report, a company commercial and interviews.
Representatives from the top three winning teams will each come away with either a $4,000, $2,000 or $1,000 scholarship.
Nease-Montgomery was overwhelmed when she heard her team had made it to the national competition.
“I honestly, I cried, it was such an esteemed honor,” she said. “The kids that were in my class, I think I screamed when i got the phone call. You work so hard for something all year long and … it all comes to fruition, all that hard work pays off.”