BIDDEFORD — More than 300 high school students gathered at seven locations across the state Wednesday to compete in the Junior Achievement organization of Maine’s annual Titan Challenge.

One of those locations was the University of New England’s Biddeford campus, where about 50 competitors turned up, including 14 students from the Biddeford Regional Center of Technology’s Business Academy, as well as six students from Sanford High School. Students from Deering High School and Scarborough High School were also there.

The Titan Challenge pits teams, which are generally composed of three students, against each other as they manage virtual companies selling the same fictional product, maneuvering real-world business challenges, such as fiercely competitive markets and economic recessions, along the way. Each team is also paired with a mentor who’s well versed in a certain aspect of business, such as marketing or research and development.

“The whole point of this is to get them into the business world,” said Ann Goodenow, area board operations director for Junior Achievement of Maine, an organization dedicated to preparing students ”“ from kindergarteners to high school seniors ”“ for the workforce. “Each of the three team members has a definite role ”“ one’s a CFO, one’s a CEO, one’s a marketing person.”

One of the most interesting aspects of the challenge is its unpredictability, explained Goodenow. For example, she said, Internet problems are common, and students must take them in stride.

“Occasionally we bog the (Wi-Fi) system down so much that it knocks folks out,” she said. “This is not unlike what the business mentors deal with everyday in their businesses. … These things happen at businesses, and you have to learn to roll with the punches.”

It didn’t take long for Goodenow’s words to ring true; one team lost its Wi-Fi connection just a few minutes into the challenge’s practice round. 

Kenneth Crepeau, a teacher at BRCOT’s Business Academy, called the challenge “a great experience” for his students Wednesday.

“It really does make them start thinking about business decisions,” he said. “They have to set inventory. They have to set a certain budget for capital investment, a certain budget for marketing, a certain budget for research and development, and they find out quickly that you can’t max all of those things out because then you go bankrupt because you spent too much money too early.”

Crepeau added that many students get “intimately engaged” with the game, and that’s something not always seen in the classroom.

Richard Stanley, president of the Sanford-Springvale Chamber of Commerce, echoed Crepeau’s sentiments, saying it’s important for students to have opportunities like this, where they can learn outside of the classroom.

Stanley said Sanford High School students have been participating in the challenge for about five years. “We usually send two to three teams,” he said.

Crepeau, who accompanied BRCOT’s five teams, said he wished he could’ve brought 10, but they limit each school to five. So he brings only seniors, he said, telling his students who are juniors that they’ll have a chance to compete next year.

Sanford High School’s two teams, on the other hand, were juniors, said Stanley.

So what was the product flying off all of those simulated shelves Wednesday? That would be the Holo Generator: a futuristic, disc-shaped hologram generator that Goodenow said is “akin to a remote.”

“The simulation is about running this virtual company that is producing Holo Generators,” she said. “So they’re talking about the price of them, production of them, what happens if they overproduce, and then the game master can throw in an economic downturn, and now all of a sudden you’re left with a whole bunch of devices that you can’t sell, or you’ve got to change the price point ”“ all these sorts of things.”

“The game’s really exciting,” said BRCOT senior Jessica Laverriere, whose team led the UNE pack after the first round. “It’s a lot more nerve-racking than I thought it would be. … But it’s a lot of fun, and I feel like it really gives us a good sense of what it’s like to run a business against specific competitors.”

Unfortunately for Laverriere and her two teammates, Maegan Perreault and Jace Hevey, they weren’t able to hold onto first. The top competitor at UNE did, however, end up being a BRCOT team as Bailey Fontaine, Mike Cohen and Nate Huot nabbed the honor. No team at UNE was able to secure one of the top three spots in the state, though.

Students from Van Buren District Secondary School in Aroostook County took home the first-place prize: $1,000 each in scholarship funds. Students from Caribou High School, also in Aroostook County, took home the second- and third-place prizes: $500 and $250 each in scholarship funds, respectively.

The scholarships were provided by Maine Education Services.

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.