World language students earn top honors in international marketing contest
A team of Upper St. Clair High School juniors earned top honors at the 2016 Cultural Communications Alliance’s marketing competition on May 5, 2016, at the University of Pittsburgh. The team is comprised of Alex Beynon, Heaven Knight and Marius Rosu.
The Cultural Communications Alliance works with Pittsburgh area high school teachers to introduce international business concepts to their students using an international case competition. High school teams work on their project throughout the year with final presentations conducted in May. In order to compete, students must be enrolled in a high school world language course.
The five teams in the competition were tasked with preparing a marketing strategy for a software program, called
Radimetrics, which measures radiation doses in hospitals. The target market was the country of Taiwan. Each team had 12 minutes to present its marketing strategy to a panel of judges from the academic and business communities, which was followed by a three-minute question opportunity by the judges.
Teams were expected to include information regarding the utilization of language, culture, cultural practices, and business practices of Taiwan; government regulations; advertising; promotion; distribution; packaging; non-market strategy considerations; sales potential; and pricing. Students were evaluated on a variety of factors including thoroughness of research, creativity, innovation and use of technology.
“The research and presentation provided students with an authentic, ‘real-world’ experience in international business,” Joanna Darakos, Upper St. Clair High School Spanish teacher, said. “The project required participants to fully understand another culture when creating their marketing pitch.”
The Upper St. Clair team began working on the project in November. Students were supervised by high school teachers Deanna Baird, German; Joanna Darakos and Kate Speer, Spanish; and Amanda Haas, math; as well as Maureen McDonough, an Upper St. Clair parent and mentor.
“We are so proud of these students who worked so hard with this extracurricular activity!” Ms. Baird said. “Alex, Heaven and Marius have progressed far on their journey to an international mindset that will help them in future careers.”
The Cultural Communications Alliance works in cooperation with Bayer USA; the International Business Center, the Global Studies Center, the Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership, and the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh; Chorus Call; and other entities to create and administer the events and competition.
