Marketing Mastery: Sandburg Team Wins 2026 Business Skills Competition

A small but mighty team of three from Carl Sandburg High School recently won the Moraine Valley Community College & Moraine Area Career Systems 2026 Business Skills Competition. A total of five schools competed, which required teams to create a comprehensive marketing plan for a solar battery product. Teams were given only one hour to design, prepare, and research their concept, then had to deliver two separate 6-8 minute presentations.

Sandburg’s winning trio included junior Jane Chan, junior Nidhi Patel, and sophomore Kamile Juzenas. Their solar portable battery, “Sola!,” featured the slogan “Charge on the Go.” Their marketing strategy targeted nature enthusiasts, Gen Z, and people interested in a healthy lifestyle, specifically runners who could use the product to “charge on the go.”

Chan noted the impact of the strict time limit on their success, saying, “I learned how to work more efficiently under a time crunch, especially with two other people. It was great to bounce ideas off one another and decide the important factors of our product.”

All three students participate in co-curricular business organizations, including BPA (Business Professionals of America) and SkillsUSA, with Chan and Patel in DECA as well. Each of the winning trio will continue to compete at a national level in BPA, DECA, or Skills.