Over 140 students competed in our 2022 JA Company Program Competition representing four high schools from across the county. Five teams were recognized for their business innovations and will be submitted for consideration to compete in the national competition.

The purpose of JA Company Program is to build the foundational knowledge of how to conceptualize, create, and manage a business. Students are guided through the process with the support of a volunteer mentor over the course of 13 weeks. The program culminates into a competition where students submit a commercial advertisement, annual report, and pitch their businesses to a panel of judges for review.

“This entire process has been a total confidence booster. I’m more comfortable with presenting,” Canyon Crest Academy student Abigail said. “I plan on becoming a writer. And I’ll have to market myself, pitch my book ideas, and all of that. So having this program here has helped build those skills so much.”

This year we had two first-place winners, two second-place winners, and a Most Powerful Social Impact Award. Learn more about this year’s winners!

FIRST PLACE TEAMS:

CharCUTE

School: Torrey Pines High School
IG: @charcuteboardss
Our mission is to gather people together within the community while preventing the stress of party planning by selling personalized candy charcuterie boards for all different kinds of social gatherings.

Sea Treasures

School: Canyon Crest Academy
Website: https://sseatreasures.weebly.com/
IG: @ssea_treasures
Our mission at Sea Treasures is to keep our beaches and oceans free of glass bottles found on beaches, which pose a threat to marine life as well as the environment. We aim to make good use of the raw glass materials we find and re-purpose them into trendy jewelry for everyone to enjoy.

SECOND PLACE TEAMS:

Seascape Totes

School: Canyon Crest Academy
Website: seascapetotes.myshopify.com
IG: @seascapetotes
Our mission is to protect our oceans and marine life from plastic waste by creating reusable tote bags and donating 5% to the non-profit Surfrider Foundation. With the help of local young artists, we hope to spread awareness and sustainability in our community. We have created two ocean-inspired tote bag designs and sell to customers around the world.

CrankRX

School: Canyon Crest Academy
Website: https://crankrx.square.site/
IG: @crankrx.bikes
Our mission at Crank RX is to bring quality, convenient, and stress-free bike repair service to people in San Diego. We want our customers to spend more time focused on the ride rather than the repair.

MOST POWERFUL SOCIAL IMPACT AWARD

What’s in My Bag?

School: e3 Civic High School
Our mission is to stop the omission of factual events in American history so elementary school students gain cultural awareness. The service component is a 45-60 minute puppet show about factual events that happened to various ethnic groups in American history. Our show focuses on the following ethnic groups: Asian, Hispanic, African, and Native Americans.

These young entrepreneurs from all five teams have been nominated to be considered for the national competition held by JA USA. If selected, the team will have the opportunity to pitch their businesses at the 2022 National Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. with 15 other teams from around the country.