North Side Freshmen Win National 3DE Competition Pithcing Ideas to Arby's Executives

Author: WANE TV
Work Readiness
Published: Thursday, 18 Apr 2024

Sharing

Image of North Side students celebrating

Image caption: North Side freshmen celebrating after hearing the news of their national award

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – It was serious business Thursday morning for a group of ninth graders at North Side High School as they appeared in front of heads of a fast food chain and judges in a national competition.

Dressed in professional attire, the 3DE team gave a virtual presentation to Arby’s executives on how to bring in a younger demographic to the restaurant.

And judges deemed their pitch worthy of first place.

3DE, a program in partnership with FWCS and Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana, allows students to work as a group to find real-world solutions to real-world problems faced by area companies.

In this case, Arby’s told 3DE students the chain wanted to improve customer service through modifications or upgrades that would bring in more teenagers to the joint on a regular basis.

“Our idea was an app with interactive mini-games,” explained Zen Gunawardhana, the teammate who developed the app in preparation for Thursday’s competition.

North Side’s team is one of just four in the country that presented at the National 3DE Case Challenge.

The student body gathered in the school’s gym for a watch party to support their peers and cheer them on as they won.

“I was just so happy that all our hard work paid off, because this was not a short thing, it was nights that we worked together, days… I was just so relieved that all our hard work paid off,” teammate Karma Conley told WANE 15.

According to FWCS, North Side received honorable mentions in last year’s national competition, and a Snider team went on to compete in the finals.