BY HALEY KERR
Staff Writer
When many students think of running a business, they think of lemonade stands and mowing neighbors’ lawns. Students in Baldwin’s Junior Achievement group, however, have plans to take entrepreneurship to the next level.
Junior Achievement is a national group that focuses on teaching students about business and entrepreneurship. Baldwin’s JA group has taken on various business-related activities, but this is the first time the group has started its own business.
The Baldwin company is called BWink. It came from the concept BW Inc., but was altered to sound catchier, and to match the logo, which is a winking emoticon.
The students involved are working on a product to market and sell that appeals to teens’ love of their phones.
“We’re trying to create cell phone cases that can also serve as wallets,” senior and marketing co-head Dipesh Timsina said. “They’ll be something you can attach to your phone, but will also have a pocket on the back to hold things like credit cards.”
The plan is to order these cases off the Internet, and then work on customizing them for Baldwin purchase.
“We’re going to design them with a purple theme for school spirit, and then we will also be designing basic colors,” Timsina said.
The company is also looking to design a way to wrap earphones around the case for further convenience.
Baldwin’s Junior Achievement group returned in 2006 after a period of inactivity. They meet every Wednesday for two hours. They have split into groups necessary for running a business.
“We recently split into the groups of marketing, supply chain, leadership, and management,” gifted coordinator Debbie Reynolds said.
Senior Mark Demore is the appointed leader of the management group and is enjoying the program.
“It gets difficult at times looking ahead, knowing that you have to make money, and making collective decisions. But it has definitely been rewarding,” Demore said.
The JA Company program has been using a website called Kickstarter, comparable to Go Fund Me, to get its sales pitch out there and try to receive funding, all of which is handled by the financial group.
