St. Charles East offers a plethora of business courses for students to take throughout their four years of high school. Whether that be marketing, accounting or introductory classes to the basics of business, East has you covered. There is one class in particular that brings all of those courses into one: VEI.
VEI stands for Virtual Enterprise International and is an in-school business simulation that helps prepare students for real-world business settings. At the start of the year, classes create their “virtual business” and sell products to other VEI students and facilitators nationwide.
Each company has departments that accomplish different tasks. At East, these departments include accounting, sales, marketing, public relations and human resources. Before completing the firm’s first tasks, each student must prepare for “interviews” to get them their assigned role in the company. Students make resumes, cover letters and thank-you letters.
Adorned in their professional attire, students are then interviewed and asked various questions about the positions they applied for. The following week, they receive a letter that states which role they got and which department they’ll be working with. The departments are run by several employees led by a vice president. Chief roles are also available. These include the roles of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). The firms follow an organizational chart that determines who reports to who.
There are three firms at East: Xtreme Comfort which sells extreme sporting equipment; Clever Contraptions, which sells smart home fitness products; and Electric Avenue, which sells vacation packages. Each has its own financial plans, target markets and goals that are all decided by the students.
Much like competitive clubs at East, VEI offers students the opportunity to test their skills and submit work for regional and national competitions. On Dec. 9, 2024, VEI students made their way to Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw, Michigan to compete in several Midwest regional competitions and participate in the trade show. After months of hard work, the students could finally showcase their finished projects.
Many of the East-based firms walked away with several awards at the Midwest Fall Conference and Exhibition. Xtreme Comfort received first place for the branding and website competitions, second place for the newsletter competition, third place for the sales material competition and placed in the top ten for the elevator pitch, sales presentation and business plan competitions. Clever Contraptions received third place in the website competition. Electric Avenue placed in the top ten in newsletter, website and booth competitions.
Outside of official VEI competitions, firms at East can also be seen competing against each other on social media for the most amount of views, likes or followers. Xtreme Comfort has taken the lead this year with one video amassing over 6.7 million views and 819.7 thousand likes. Much of the viral success on Xtreme Comfort’s TikTok is due to careful analysis of profile and video analytics.
“It’s been great watching all of our hard work pay off, whether that’s through the success of our TikToks, other social media pages or the awards that we receive at our trade shows,” said senior Max Brockmeyer, Public Relations Specialist of Xtreme Comfort. “Seeing our time and effort get back to us is really rewarding.”
The trade shows are another exciting aspect of VEI. Each firm creates a booth space to showcase and sell their products to customers. Senior Lillian Dirickson, CAO of Xtreme Comfort, finds trade shows to be one of the best parts of the course. “My favorite part of VEI is the in-person trade shows,” said Dirickson, “I think it’s really cool to connect with people from different schools and getting to practice making a sale as it’s something that I think will serve me well in the future. It’s also really fun.”
VEI is the perfect class for any person who wants to encapsulate themselves in the business world. “I’ve had a pretty business-forward background throughout all of my schoolings and coming into high school I had heard a lot about VEI and how it’s a great class, especially for college,” said senior Bradley Monkemeyer, CEO of Xtreme Comfort, “It’s been super fun and eye-opening and it’s also been a huge contributor to furthering my business knowledge.”
Junior Ethan Crooke, Public Relations Specialist of Xtreme Comfort, expressed one of how VEI has prepared him for real-world business scenarios. “The trade shows are a very good way to learn how to sell to a customer, especially when it comes to the real world where like if you are a part of marketing or sales [and] you have to sell to other people”.
If you are considering adding VEI to your schedule, you must have completed a minimum of two business courses. To support and learn more about East’s award-winning VEI firms, follow them on Instagram and TikTok.
