Pathfinder students get national attention for business plan

June 1, 2022 | Staasi Heropoulos

Kiara Diaz, Morgan Tourigny and Hannah Maki worked tirelessly putting together a business plan that won them national honors.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo

PALMER – Three juniors at Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School have come up with a way to take on the gigantic Eatertainment industry. Their new business plan is so revolutionary, they placed fifth in a national competition with other students who came up with new business ideas of their own.

Eatertainment is a dining experience that includes food and other activities like bowling or music. Morgan Tourigny, Hannah Maki and Kiara Diaz envisioned a drinking and dining venue that also allows patrons to play international sports.

“We noticed how popular the Olympics are around the world so we went with an international theme. We looked at our competition and found they were highly focused on arcade and video games, so went in another direction,” said Tourigny.

The girls named their business Global Games. In keeping with their Olympic theme, the juniors created a business and marketing plan that called for leasing space in a dining hall to food vendors that would offer an international cuisine. Global Games would also give guests a chance to play sports from different cultures in an arena-style setting.

“We wanted to pull audiences away from video games and into the real world. We’re focusing on physical activities that require motion as opposed to video games and controllers,” said Tourigny.

Business Professionals of America sponsored this National Leadership contest. The Pathfinder team took second place among 20 other teams in the Massachusetts competition. That performance was good enough to earn them a spot at the national competition in Dallas last month. The juniors took fifth place among 65 teams.

The girls made a 10-minute presentation to a panel of judges who asked tough follow-up questions, making the trio defend their business model and marketing plan. They made their entire presentation and answered questions without using notes, which were banned from the competition.

“I’m sure they memorized this in their sleep,” said Amy Skowyra, who is the girls’ teacher in the business technology department. “Everything has to be so precise at nationals. You can’t mess up. It’s highly competitive,” she continued.

Skowyra said she was thrilled to see her team onstage receiving their medals.

“I wasn’t surprised the girls did so well because they worked so hard. They went home almost every night and rehearsed their lines. They really worked well as a team and got everything done with sufficient time to review and refine their plan and presentation. They were highly professional,” said Skowyra.

Even though the girls were confident they would do well, there were butterflies and jitters when they appeared before the judges.
“It was quite a big leap going from Massachusetts to Texas. There was some stress, but we had been working on it for so long and did so much research, we nailed down the script precisely,” said Tourigny.

Skowyra described the girls as studious, always getting their work done on time. She said they do whatever she asks and willingly incorporate feedback to improve their work. That plan served them well when they introduced their new business on a national stage.

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