Enterprise Leadership Conference

Select high school juniors in the California Bay Area have the privilege of participating in the Enterprise Leadership Conference (ELC), a three-day business program run by local Rotary Clubs aimed at teaching high schoolers about managing a company.

I had the privilege of attending under the Rotary Club Silicon Valley West. Rotary Club is an international organization composed of business and professional leaders who work together to address community and international needs, making a positive impact locally and globally. There are numerous Rotary Club charters, but only a few Rotary Clubs sponsor ELC (Sunnyvale, Los Altos, and Campbell, to name a few). Due to the nature of the non-profit organization, all expenses were paid, meaning I attended ELC for free.

This experience started on a Wednesday in mid-March. I traveled in the morning to West Valley College, where I met my team (six people, four girls and two boys) and got a t-shirt, which I would have to wear for the rest of the trip. We brainstormed business ideas, getting ready for the competition at the end of the program in which all the teams would present their companies to a panel of judges, similar to the show "Shark Tank." We were given (free) breakfast and two Rotary Club members for each team (one man and one woman) as mentors. On the first day, we learned how to be a leader and our leadership personalities. I am a turtle, meaning I am detailed and well-organized. Other personality types include frog (quick to start), elephant (helpful and generous), and butterfly (has a clear overall vision). We were given lunch before we departed on buses.

Most of our time was spent listening to presentations being given by volunteer Rotary Club members about business

We traveled for about an hour on two buses with our team to Asilomar in Pacific Grove, conference grounds on the beach. We were given room keys for our hotel-like rooms (we roomed with the members of our team of the same gender) and organized in the congregation hall that we would use for assemblies, meetings, and our presentations. The rest of our presentations on the first day had to do with company missions, organization, business plans, and at night, the marketing plan. Each team had the opportunity to split authority however they wanted, using titles like CEO (Chief Executive Officer), CFO (Chief Financial Officer), COO (Chief Operating Officer), CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), and so on. I was the CFO.

On the second day, we had more presentations to help with creating our businesses like finance and budget, human resources, ethics, and exit strategies. We were able to go to the beach and visit the gift store in the lobby during free time. That night, we participating in team challenges to decide our presentation slots for the next day. Some challenges included a memory game, TicTacToe, and street hockey. My team got seventh pick, and decided to present first.

The third day was all about presentations. I was part of team 1, meaning that we had a practice presentation to get feedback in the morning around 8:30. The rest of the day was spent working on our slides and our script. As the CFO, I was in charge of showing our 3-Year Income Plan and our exit strategy. We presented first after lunch. Our business NeuroLingo, a company that sold technology that would be able to neurologically translate any language to a person's brain and allow them to speak it back (the product did not have to be realistic). Although we did not win the competition, it was a valuable experience that helped me learn how to collaborate, be a leader while also taking direction, and manage my time better.