This past January, senior and member of the Junior Achievement (JA) Entrepreneurial Academy Rashmi Rajesh competed in the FedEx Junior Business challenge where her team won $75,000 for the Junior Achievement of Southwest New England to use in the creation of new programs.

  After competing and winning at the local business challenge at the PGA-Tour in Cromwell on June 21, the team proceeded onto the Finals which took place at the PGA tour finale in Atlanta, Georgia on September 20 where they competed and won against four other teams, taking the prize.

 “I will never forget the moment we won. The three of us who went held hands and huddled as we waited for the verdict. When our company was announced we were so happy we almost started crying. All of hard work and effort for the past couple of months paid off in that one moment, and as I went up to get the trophy, I could not help but think that even though every member of our initial team could not make [it], their commitment and dedication paid off,” Rajesh said.

  The team was accompanied by Education Manager of Entrepreneurial Programs Jacqueline Lombardi who provided mentorship as the students prepared for the FedEx Competition.

  “Our students completely blew me away.  I have never met such determined, dedicated, passionate, poised, and professional students, the list goes on and on. I feel inspired and lucky to have gotten to work closely with them throughout the planning process,” Lombardi said.

  The team for the FedEx challenge was composed of members of the JA Entrepreneurial Academy. Rajesh was nominated by Business teachers Jeff Daddio and Maria Giarratana to be part of the academy. Alum Mitchell Ives was also nominated.

  “It felt good to be acknowledged for my hard work within the school, and to be rewarded with such a valuable opportunity outside of school. My experience will definitely help me in the future,” Ives said.

  Rajesh served as the President of the company as well as the Vice President of Marketing and Ives served as the Vice President of Supply and Operations for their company.

  “This was incredible for me, as I am very passionate about business and was glad that they recognized me for my skills to be able to participate in this program. I am thankful that they did, as it was a great learning experience,” Rajesh said.

   The 15 week long program had its headquarters in New Britain at the Stanley Black and Decker world headquarters where the group developed their business, Lo-K8, which was a small bluetooth device that was created as a way to track the user’s phones, and could be attached onto small objects such as keys or a purse.

  “I learned a lot of hands-on experience of what it was like to run a real-life entrepreneurship, and more importantly the values of teamwork and collaboration in a business setting. I was also lucky enough to have been taking the E-Commerce and Entrepreneurship Capstone with Mrs. G during this time period, so I was able to use a lot of the things I learned when we as a class were creating a business and applied it to the JA company,” Rajesh said.

Students in the program came from the high school, New Britain High School, Berlin High School, Avon High School, Kingswood Oxford, and Newington High School.

  Nicole Diorio is the director of Education and Specialty Programs at JA. Her role is to communicate with local schools regarding student recruit as well as work with Stanley Black and Decker to recruit and train volunteers.

  “[Lo-K8] was a smart and successful idea. It filled a need that expanded to a wide market, guaranteeing success in a return on investment. However it is not just a product idea that makes a business successful, it’s the people behind it. They must be driven and dedicated. Lo-K8 employees were both of those thing,” Diorio said.

  The team’s profits from their business went towards a donation to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Center, stockholders, and to the salaries of their employees.