May 12, 2022

USCHS team finishes second in international marketing competition

A team of Upper St. Clair High School students recently placed second in the Cultural Communications Alliance (CCA) Marketing Competition. Team members include juniors Phillip Markovitz, Priyanka Palayekar and Ben Wasson, as well as sophomore Susan Liu. The event was held May 3, 2022, at the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Business.

The four teams in the competition were tasked with creating a marketing plan for GNC's Beyond Raw Precision BCAA (Branched-chain amino acids) to be sold in Mexico. Each team delivered a 12-minute presentation to a panel of judges, which was followed by a three-minute question and answer session.

Teams were evaluated on the appropriate exploration of language and culture, logistics, marketing, demographics, use of resources, creativity of approach, effective use of multimedia, presentation skills and responses to judges’ questions.

“I'm really proud of our team for staying committed to the competition,” Joanna Darakos, Upper St. Clair High School Spanish teacher and team sponsor, said.

The marketing competition was open to all high school students who are currently studying a world language. Teams could have a maximum of five members.

Winning top honors for the first time was Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). Upper St. Clair finished second, and Pine-Richland High School took third place honors.

According to its website, “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 before the competition final presentations.”

CCA works in cooperation with the Katz Graduate School of Business, the Global Studies Center and the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and other entities to create and administer the events and competition.