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 2019 Team Challenge event that was held on Dec. 6th.
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 Marlboro High School won first place in the competition with its focus on economic growth vs. environmental effects. Marlboro's team was led by advisors Nicole Bendik and Patrick Scinto. Student participants from Marlboro were Stephanie Fauder, Andrew Furie, Joshua Goodman, Matthew Goodman, Daniel Grafstein, Nakul Gupta, Sachin Kurapati, Finnian Leahy, Tiara Rathi, Jaime Scimone, Ritvik Sharma, and Hailey Steinberg. Ankit Adimala, Abhijay Gaur, Assimew Laki, and Amisha Tiwari served as Marlboro’s alternates.
Manalapan High School’s team won third place in the competition with its focus on Daraprim’s Impact on the U.S. Economy and Creation of a Monopolized Market. Manalapan’s team was led by advisors Regina Hayes and Matthew Inzerillo. Student participants from Manalapan were Katrine Birkeland, Anthony Di Rienzo, Rithvik Ganti, Ashni Kapadia, Aniket Khanna, Gaurav Karkhanis, Kaushik Prakash, Abigail Leff, Logan Nadelman, Danielle Ordemann, and Dean Tortora.
Prior to the Dec. 6th, 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.