On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Mrs. Pinke adjusted the camera to face the business freshman class for a Skype session with GoGo squeeZ Innovative Marketing team member, Dennis Katsnelson.

Katsnelson, a 2010 BCA alumnae, appeared on the screen, ready to hear what BCA students had to present. One by one, each group of students went up to the camera and presented what was the beginning of their new product concepts for Materne North America, commonly known as GoGo squeeZ, as Katsnelson listened and then gave feedback to the students.

“Hearing from executives from various parts of the business such as innovation, finance, and branding makes this a really unique experience.”

The Skype session is a part of an ongoing-project BCA business sophomores and freshman have been taking part in. Under the direction of Mrs. Pinke, students are involved in a creative project called the GoGo squeeZ Marketing Challenge in which each sophomore and freshman class is to innovate and present new product ideas for GoGo squeeZ.

As Mrs. Pinke described it, “Students are challenged to develop new product concepts along with the promotional strategies as part of a crowd sourcing project for Materne North America/GoGo squeeZ. Students are challenged to be innovative, creative, and collaborative in this exciting endeavor.”

Materne North America is providing each business class with $500 for promotional, developmental, and other business related ventures. They are encouraged to be creative and just a bit competitive. The friendly competition between the classes culminates with a final presentation in front of GoGo squeeZ executives who then choose the winning product idea.

While students have signed a Confidentiality Agreement which does not allow the actual product concepts to be shared, the idea behind the challenge is to develop a new product or product line as well as develop a promotional strategy.

Another interesting aspect about the challenge is that as mentioned previously, it is overseen by BCA’s very own alumnus Dennis Katsnelson.

“The best part about the challenge is having access to our alumnus Dennis Katsnelson to get feedback along the way so students can use feedback in the project,” said Mrs. Pinke. “Many times students get feedback at the end and then move on to the next thing without ever getting to really reflect.”

She added, “Additionally, hearing from executives from various parts of the business such as innovation, finance, and branding makes this a really unique experience.”

“This is a real life experience, and because what we do can have a lasting impact, we all care about the project a lot more.”

When asked what made her pursue the GoGo squeeZ project, Mrs. Pinke replied,“We’re always looking for hands-on opportunities for our students to apply what they are learning as they learn it. I had a very similar project in mind when Mr. Dennis Katsnelson reached out to me and the opportunity to work with an ABF alumnus is very exciting because he knows our students and our resources so well.”

She laughed and said, “When I say mod 7, he knows what that means!”

In addition, the GoGo squeeZ project provides ABF students a collaborative way to innovate while still following the curriculum.

Mrs. Pinke said, “The concepts that are used in the challenge are the concepts from the curriculum.” As an example, in reference to a marketing concept, she expanded and said, “Students apply the ‘Four Ps’ of marketing to the GoGo squeeZ Marketing Challenge and will ultimately present each of these components of the marketing mix.”

ABF students had some positive reflections about the project to share. In fact, the students’ reflections go hand in hand with what Mrs. Pinke hoped they will take away from the project. As she stated, “Students can gain an appreciation for experiential learning and will hopefully seek out more opportunities to do this here at BCA and beyond.”

Freshman Akanksha Kataria, in regards to the whole process said, “It’s really fun. It is an innovative way for students to apply what they are learning. It doesn’t just enforce the idea of ‘sit and learn’, but it actually applies what we’re learning to the real world, to actual business skills.”

Kataria also said that the project has inspired her to look into what she may want to do in the future.“It has inspired me that the skills we use in class can definitely be used in the future. I mean, it has inspired me to go at my own chance at innovating, to create my own product. Now, I believe that it is possible.”

An ABF sophomore, Max Alweiss, stated, “My favorite part about the GoGo squeeZ Challenge is definitely learning about the marketing necessary for a product to succeed.  For every product we work on, there is almost as much work required for deciding how to promote that product as well.” Alweiss also said that the concepts he learned about marketing in the project aided him in succeeding in DECA, the main business competition at BCA.

Another sophomore, Edison Hauptman, added, “This isn’t just a simulation. This is a real life experience, and because what we do can have a lasting impact, we all care about the project a lot more than we would for a hypothetical scenario.”

Going into next year,  if she decides to take part in the challenge again, Mrs. Pinke said she would like to “find a way to keep work flowing outside of class time using collaboration technologies.” While she also said that she will keep in consideration the fact that the project “has to develop in each class organically and each class will do things a bit differently,” she is impressed overall with the way the project has progressed.

“When we reviewed product concepts, many of the questions Dennis asked were the same questions peers asked during our class, which confirmed that the students are thinking at a high level and really looking critically at ideas. The level of sophistication is impressive to me.”