CHICAGO -- March 29, 2006 -- On Friday, April 7th from 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., eight area high school teams will compete in Junior Achievement of Chicago's Second Annual JA Titan Competition at Hotel Allegro (171 West Randolph Street) in downtown Chicago.
JA Titan is Junior Achievement's first Web-based program that prepares students for the business world by simulating a new business launch. It puts participating students at the helm of a manufacturing company as Company President, Production Manager, Marketing Manager and Accounting Manager. Students learn how to compete against other teams to become "titans" of industry by achieving success through a business world simulation.
This year, Hostway, a leading provider of Web Hosting and managed services, contributed $25,000 to support the JA Titan Competition. While the JA Titan program is usually run in a classroom setting, Hostway's donation gave eight local high school teams, each comprised of four students, the opportunity to come together and compete at the JA Titan Competition.
"Hostway's gift is another example of its long-standing commitment to improving the lives of the future business and community leaders of this country," said Sandy Daffe, president, Junior Achievement of Chicago. "Their strong support for Junior Achievement of Chicago programming continues to enhance the educational opportunities available to these children."
Hostway volunteers also dedicated a total of 75 hours visiting Chicago Public School classrooms on a weekly basis during the first semester. These volunteers supported the student's economics, finance and computer training with their real-life workforce examples and complemented the curriculum with the JA Titan game.
"Equipping students with the knowledge to become tomorrow's business leaders is extremely important to Hostway," said Lucas Roh, CEO of Hostway. "We're dedicated to furthering Chicagoland's growth as a technology hub; therefore it's imperative that Chicagoland technology companies inspire our youth to dive head first into today's cutting edge technologies and business practices."
The JA Titan contest prizes, courtesy of Hostway, include four top-of-the-line laptop PCs and $600 in gift cards. The four members of the first place team will each receive a laptop (up to a $2,500 value). The second place team members will each receive a $100 gift card to CompUSA. Third prize is a $50 gift card to Best Buy for each team member.
The two winning teams will represent JA of Chicago at the national JA Titan Competition this spring. Two winners from the national competition will advance to the final JA Titan Competition held at Walt Disney World.
For more information or to schedule an interview with a Hostway executive, please contact Jennifer Mussman at 312-994-7720 or at Jennifer.Mussman@hostwaycorp.com. If you'd like to speak with a representative from Junior Achievement, please contact Beth Carlson at 312-715-1300 ext. 224 or at bcarlson@jachicago.org
About Hostway
Hostway Corporation provides Web hosting and managed services to more than 400,000 customers worldwide. Hostway helps individuals, small businesses and large enterprises achieve more value from state-of-the-art Web-based technologies by reducing their complexity and cost. Founded in 1998, Hostway is one of the five largest Web hosting companies in the world with offices in North America (Chicago (HQ), Austin, Tampa and Vancouver), Europe (Belgium, France, Frankfurt, Hannover, London and Netherlands), Asia (Korea) and Australia (Sydney). For more information about Hostway Corporation, please visit www.hostway.com or call 1-866-467-8929.
About Junior Achievement
Junior Achievement is the world's largest and fastest-growing organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics and free enterprise as a means to improving the quality of their lives. Through age-appropriate curricula, JA programs begin at the elementary school level, teaching children how they can impact the world around them as individuals, workers and consumers. JA programs continue through the middle and high school grades, preparing students for additional key economic and workforce issues they will face in the future. JA's economic education programs are taught by classroom consultants recruited from leading corporations and community organizations. A franchise of Junior Achievement Inc., Junior Achievement of Chicago touched the lives of more than 305,000 young people last year. Junior Achievement of Chicago has programs in 12 area counties and will reach 320,000 students in the Chicago area this year, with the help of over 10,000 business and community volunteers. For additional information, please contact Beth Carlson at bcarlson@jachicago.org or visit www.jachicago.org.
