H-ton Virtual Enterprise Teams Vie at Youth Business Summit

Huntington High School’s four Virtual Enterprise firms ventured to the Jacob Javits Convention Center on 11th Avenue in Manhattan for the two day VE Youth Business Summit, where they vied alongside 4,600 students spanning 40 states and 13 countries in multiple business related competitions and participated in a massive trade show.

Forty students from Huntington’s Flo-Pro, Haven, HorizonVR and Raydiance firms were present and were either immersed in the massive trade floor selling their products to other firms, performing their sales pitches to individual investors or competing in specialized competitions for which they qualified.

Raydiance’s human resources and finance teams composed of Sam Muller, Lexi Balm, Ryan DiVico, Vincenza Garofalo and Grace Oliva trekked into the city a day earlier than the rest of the contingent as national finalists for their respective department competitions.

“After a day of grueling competitions presenting their employee handbook and their financial highlights to multiple judges, both teams finished in the top 40 in the nation,” said Bryan Outsen, the high school business teacher who oversees the Virtual Enterprise program.

The remainder of Huntington High School’s VE students traveled into Manhattan in the early morning hours, meeting the Raydiance team members and Mr. Outsen at the Javits Convention Center.

“The majority of students set up their individual firm’s sales booth to showcase their products,” Mr. Outsen said. “From 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. our firms were able to generate a total of $564,536.29 in total revenue.

The financial breakdown went as follows:

• Flo-Pro: $80,923.97

• Haven: $163,044.22

• HorizonVR: $122,719.77

• Raydiance: $197,848.33

While the tradeshow played out on one side of the Javits Center, on the other side employees from Huntington’s Raydiance and HorizonVR firms participated in the national Financial Literacy Challenge sponsored by Osaic Wealth Management, where students were tasked with preparing a budget for a fictional couple based on a given fact pattern and then altering their previous numbers based on a surprise life event they were given upon arrival.

“Groups then had 60 minutes to prepare a new budget and slides to present to a panel of judges during a 10-15 minute session.” Mr. Outsen said.

Sam Muller, Lexie Balm, Vincenza Garofalo, and Grace Oliva represented Raydiance, while Jolie Weinschreider, Oliva Kaufman, Chase Northrop and Grace Gordon represented HorizonVR.

“Our HorizonVR team qualified for the final round where they finished as one of the top six firms in the nation in the competition and were the only all junior team to make it to the final round,” Mr. Outsen said.

Across from the Financial Literacy competition, three Huntington students represented their firms in the National Sales Pitch contest, where representatives from every attending firm went into a room and had two minutes to explain their company’s mission and sell their product to a panel of customers and investors.

Mia Molina Baptista represented Flo-Po, Spencer Krull represented Haven and Ryan DiVico represented Raydiance. “Upon completion of the competition, during the final award ceremony, we cheered on Spencer Krull as he walked across the main stage and was awarded gold for the National Sales Pitch, as one of the 10 best pitches out of the thousands of competitors that day,” Mr. Outsen said.

“Overall, it was truly a successful event for all of the students involved as many were able to see all their hard work from this year really pay off,” Mr. Outsen said. “This sets the bar very high for our incoming Virtual Enterprise students and I am excited to see the next round of kids not just meet, but exceed this year’s level of excellence. A special shout out to chaperones Suzi Biagi, Trish Avelli, Omar Santiago, Sarah Mannino, and Lorraine Raha who helped with the event, I truly would not have been able to do it without you all.”