Truist Business Scholars recently shared their passion for business and the importance of innovation and collaboration with students at Triton High School in Erwin. While the Truist Business Scholars focus on academic rigor, cultural engagement and leadership, community service is a way that the students live out their mission and give back to the surrounding community, impacting high schoolers who are in the same place that the scholars were just a few years ago.
The Triton visit focused on teamwork within marketing (18 students) and management (30 students) classes, so the scholars guided the high school students to create, manage, and promote a product.
First-year scholar Raelynn Cox said, “The goal of visiting Triton was to help the students learn how important it is to collaborate, even with strangers. We also wanted to be able to interact with students and if they had any questions about college, provide the answer the best we can. My favorite part about going to Triton was being able to teach kids about teamwork and collaboration and how important it will be to them in college and their careers.”
Kimberly Hackett, the Triton business teacher who hosted Campbell’s group, reflected on the way that the Scholars broke the ice and got the high schoolers to come out of their shell, “The students from the Campbell Truist Business Scholars program, brought an engaging, innovative and cool collaboration project to my classroom. Their interaction with my Business Management and Marketing classes was insightful and fun for the students, who knew a few simple sour patch kids could bring out some of my shy students talking abilities. The candy was a good idea, especially for high school students. We thoroughly enjoyed their presentation and the student enjoyed listening to their thoughts and feedback on their teamwork skills.”
Allowing the Truist Scholars to take the lead on the planning and execution of this project not only helped engage and grow the high school students, but was also a developmental experience for the Scholars themselves.
Cox said, “For me, the biggest learning experience was public speaking and leading. Doing the presentation helped me gain more public speaking and leadership experience. We also learned what to do and not to do for next time.”