FRHSD Schools Participate in Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Team Challenge
Students from all six Freehold Regional High School District schools and Allentown High School tackled real life issues while analyzing the ethical implications issues during the 2018 Team Challenge event that was held on Dec. 13th.
The purpose of the Team Challenge, hosted by the Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce and chaired by Edie Legg, Investor’s Bank, is to provide high school students with hands-on experience in team building, creative problem solving and dealing with the ethical decision-making process within the context of real-world business problems. Using the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics framework from Santa Clara University, teams from the high schools explore business issues that have complex ethical implications. Over a period of several weeks, the teams work together to develop solutions that show their understanding of the issues, demonstrate their use of the Markkula decision-making framework in working through the conflicts and illustrate evidence of their teamwork and presentation skills. Each team presents their findings and solutions to a panel of judges from within the business community.
This year Howell High School won second place in the competition with their focus on the minimum wage. Howell’s team was led by advisors James Buckner and Tim Hogan. Student participants from Howell were Anthony Castellani, Lyndsey Clark, Jonna Crocker, Kayla Fittipaldi, Emily Guica, Sophia Jernigan, Lucas O’Reilly, Jaya Patten and Amanda Zelevansky.
Manalapan High School’s team won third place in the competition with their focus on the Wells Fargo dilemma. Manalapan’s team was led by advisors Regina Hayes and Matthew Inzerillo. Student participants from Manalapan were Alana Denenberg, Anthony Di Rienzo, Ashni Kapadia, Gaurav Karkhanis, Aniket Khanna, Kayla Lemma, Abigail Leff, Katie McCurdy, Danielle Ordemann, Jared Shilling and Dean Tortora.
Prior to the Dec. 13th, competition, the Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce conducted a teacher-training session to prepare the teachers to facilitate the preliminary competition process with the students. It also conducted a student orientation where students were provided with an overview of the challenge and training on the ethical decision-making process as it pertained to each group’s business issues.
The program prepares students to effectively enter the workforce by placing them in an environment in which teamwork and creative interdependence are required, where they get to develop their communication skills, and where they learn a process for ethical decision-making that will benefit them as they assume leadership positions at work and within their communities.
In addition to sponsoring Team Challenge, the Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce awards two scholarships to two students who participated in the event. Additional criteria for scholarship consideration include community involvement, academic achievement, participation in school activities, and completion of a scholarship application. Awardees of the scholarship will be announced in 2019.