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Houston JA Student Company Wins HP's Responsible Business Award

 

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:
July 28, 2010

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT STUDENT COMPANY "WINC" WINS
HP'S RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS AWARD

Innovative young entrepreneurs excel at business and social responsibility.

Colorado Springs, Colo.At the 2010 North American JA Company of the Year Competition held July 18-21 in Minneapolis, Junior Achievement and HP awarded first-place honors in the HP Responsible Business Ideas Contest to WINC, a student-company finalist from Houston, Texas. Contest judges recognized these young entrepreneurs as having developed the concept that best combined effective business practices with social and environmental responsibility.

WINC, created by high school students from Spring Woods High School, won the award with their innovative solar powered lanterns. The judges were impressed with their comprehensive business model based on green technology. The young entrepreneurs sold 70 units and made a profit as a company. The team demonstrated their social responsibility by supporting an international micro-lending organization which works with entrepreneurs in developing countries. The students also dedicated time as volunteers at a local elementary school, delivering JA programs.

"WINC exemplifies HP's vision of a strong commitment to social innovation. Creating a sense of responsibility while developing entrepreneurial skills is of paramount importance," said Gabi Zedlmayer, Vice President, Office of Global Social Innovation, HP. "Through our partnership with Junior Achievement, we can help educate tomorrow's business leaders to safeguard our world and our shared economy."

"The HP Responsible Business Award encourages students to see the value of incorporating social responsibility in successful business practices, and shows young entrepreneurs how they can do well by doing good. It also helps young people to more fully realize the opportunities and requirements of work in the 21st-century global marketplace," said Sean C. Rush, president and chief executive officer of JA Worldwide. "We are grateful to HP for its commitment to student entrepreneurs and to supporting Junior Achievement as it empowers young people to own their future economic success by enhancing the relevancy of education."

The Award is part of the HP Responsible Business Competition, a flagship program of JA and HP in the U.S., Latin America and Europe. The competition encourages students in JA entrepreneurship education programs to consider social and environmental responsibility. More than 200,000 students have benefited from the HP Responsible Business Competition since its inception in 2006.

About JA Worldwide® (Junior Achievement)
Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Through a dedicated volunteer network, Junior Achievement provides in-school and after-school programs for students which focus on three key content areas: work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Today, 126 individual area operations reach more than four million students in the United States, with an additional 5.7 million students served by operations in 122 other countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.ja.org.

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