For over a quarter century, Fort Hamilton High School has offered the Virtual Enterprise program to its senior students, allowing them to simulate a real world business environment with authentic tasks and responsibilities. The program provides students the opportunity to develop key business skills as well as universal soft skills such as collaboration, leadership and time management. This year’s business model led the program into another successful year.
In the fall, students learned the intricacies of Design4Delight, a design thinking strategy that identifies problems, empathizes with customer pain points, creates solutions and rapidly tests the ideas. Through research and consensus, students agreed to create CultureCrave, a business concept that offers a convenient way for consumers to gain access to difficult-to-obtain snacks from around the world.
Organized in various departments such as the Executive, Accounting, Marketing and Human Resources departments, the students developed an engaging enterprise to appeal to over 20,000 Virtual Enterprise students and educators across the country. The Marketing Department surveyed over 1,200 Gen Z students and discovered that over 90% of respondents want easier access to snacks from their home country, as well as the opportunity to try snacks from other cultures.
Founded in November 2024, CultureCrave models a business which imports, stores and delivers the snacks in various bundles called “Noms” straight to your door, while eliminating long wait times. CultureCrave’s initial offering curated snacks from four foreign countries: Mexico, Italy, Japan and Egypt. The “Noms” were actively marketed through the creation of an e-commerce website, maintenance of social media accounts, and participation in various trade shows.
Over the last six months, the company generated over 1600 sales and made approximately $2 million in revenue. The business expanded its product offerings with snacks from four additional countries: Albania, Turkey, South Korea and Jamaica. All of these decisions were made based on primary data from surveys, as well as secondary sources such as industry growth, consumer trends and economic forecasts.
Fort Hamilton’s VE program has garnered Gold Standard recognition (Top 50 Nationally) for three years in a row. Each department has been key in this success. The executives lead the direction of the company, make key decisions and present a business plan for investors. The accounting department analyzes and records business transactions, creates financial statements and organizes the personal finance duties of each student in the class. Each student receives a simulated salary and must-pay rent, utilities, food and transportation expenses monthly, which the accounting department closely monitors. The marketing department strives to reach and understand the company’s target market. They create surveys and sales pitches, design the logo and sales materials and prepare for live and online trade shows to generate revenue. The Human Resources department handles all employee issues including interviews, onboarding, employee evaluations and professional development.
CultureCrave triumphed in numerous national and local competitions throughout the year. The Graphics/Design team achieved a Top 1% finish in the National Branding Competition, while the Sales team won the Gold medal in the Booth Design and Sales Materials competitions at the Long Island Trade Show at LIU-CWPost. The company was a Top 15 presenter in the NYC Advertising Futures event and their Elevator Pitch placed in the top 25% nationally.
Timothy Tan, a sales associate, earned Bronze recognition in the National Sales Pitch, and Winnie Yu, Ashley Lopez Uvera and Benny Yu earned Silver nationally for their efforts with social media. The students also submitted work for the Video Commercial and Company Newsletter national competitions and are awaiting results.
Most notably, the executives developed a written business plan and designed presentation slides and a script to attract potential investors. With the assistance of Deloitte, their professional partner, the team advanced through local and city competitions to earn a spot in the National Business Plan Competition — top 40 in the country.
The year culminated with Virtual Enterprise’s capstone event: the Youth Business Summit (YBS) at the Jacob Javits Center. Over 350 high schools from across the country and around the world gathered in NYC for two days to compete and sell their goods and services. Students marketed, engaged and networked with many like-minded students.
“My experience in VE was unlike any other high school class; I really enjoyed the project and competition based learning experiences and strengthening relationships with my peers,” said Talya Landesberg, the CEO of CultureCrave, when reflecting on this year’s experience.
The company’s first employee of the month, Saja Fakir, a human resources associate, noted that she came into the class quiet and was uncomfortable working in groups, but through projects and meetings in VE, she has become more patient, understanding, and able to handle team work.
Aaron Liu, an Accounting Associate, came into VE with no business knowledge, but is leaving with the basic foundations and will use these skills in college to major in accounting.
“It is a wonderful experience to see such growth and development in such a short period of time. These students really learn to realize their potential, to give their all, embrace ‘failing forward’ and mature into confident young adults,” VE Coordinator Mr. O’Neill said.
