Student-led company Sweet Cham at JA COY tradeshow

Apr 30, 2025 (San Diego, CA) — Dozens of student-led companies shared their business solutions and entrepreneurial journeys at the annual JA Company of the Year Competition, held by Junior Achievement of San Diego County (JA San Diego). Over the last several months, students have conceptualized and developed business ventures that aim to address an issue facing their community, while gaining hands-on experience in the entrepreneurial process.

“In my future, I really hope to be a small business owner,” said Sabine C., Canyon Crest Academy student and CEO of Oatley, an overnight oats DIY kit company. “This experience has been amazing. I’ve really learned how to build my confidence and pitch myself to so many people, whether it’s classmates, a teacher, or judges from different companies.”

With two-thirds of young people interested in starting their own business, this program introduces young people to the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and shows them how they can turn a business idea into a profitable business venture. The skills students develop from building their own businesses fuel their early career journeys and support students’ long-term success in any career field.

“The major I’ve declared is psychology, and I want to make an impact by helping others. I hope that I take lessons learned from working in a team, taking feedback, and working with other people to better myself and better understand situations or individuals,” said Daniel P., a student from e3 Civic High.

Nearly 800 students across the San Diego region engaged in the JA curriculum with 125 students representing Canyon Crest Academy, e3 Civic High, Torrey Pines High, Oceanside High, Chula Vista Learning Community Charter, and CETYS participating in JA COY. The top teams at the JA San Diego Company of the Year Competition will be nominated to compete in the national JA USA Future Bound summit held at Georgia State University in June.

The following teams were awarded at the 2025 JA COY:

JA Company of the Year

• 1^st Place – Oatley (Canyon Crest Academy): Oatley offers overnight oat kits to provide an easy and healthy breakfast for people on the go.
• 2^nd Place – Sweet & Simple (Torrey Pines High): Sweet & Simple offers ready-to-bake cookie and cake boxes.

JA Social Innovation Challenge

• 1^st Place – Eco-Track (Chula Vista Learning Community Charter): Eco-Track is an app that allows users to track their carbon footprint.

Social Impact Tradeshow Award

• Simply Sprouted (Torrey Pines High): Simply Sprouted offers DIY herb growing kits for beginners.

JA Innovation Tradeshow Award

• Wave and Glow (CETYS): Wave and Glow offers ethically sourced seashell candles.

JA COY was made possible with the support of Comerica Bank, Fitzpatrick Family Foundation, PenChecks, and UC San Diego Park & Market.

Over 140 students competed in our 2022 JA Company Program Competition representing four high schools from across the county. Five teams were recognized for their business innovations and will be submitted for consideration to compete in the national competition.

The purpose of JA Company Program is to build the foundational knowledge of how to conceptualize, create, and manage a business. Students are guided through the process with the support of a volunteer mentor over the course of 13 weeks. The program culminates into a competition where students submit a commercial advertisement, annual report, and pitch their businesses to a panel of judges for review.

“This entire process has been a total confidence booster. I’m more comfortable with presenting,” Canyon Crest Academy student Abigail said. “I plan on becoming a writer. And I’ll have to market myself, pitch my book ideas, and all of that. So having this program here has helped build those skills so much.”

This year we had two first-place winners, two second-place winners, and a Most Powerful Social Impact Award. Learn more about this year’s winners!

FIRST PLACE TEAMS:

CharCUTE

School: Torrey Pines High School
IG: @charcuteboardss
Our mission is to gather people together within the community while preventing the stress of party planning by selling personalized candy charcuterie boards for all different kinds of social gatherings.

Sea Treasures

School: Canyon Crest Academy
Website: https://sseatreasures.weebly.com/
IG: @ssea_treasures
Our mission at Sea Treasures is to keep our beaches and oceans free of glass bottles found on beaches, which pose a threat to marine life as well as the environment. We aim to make good use of the raw glass materials we find and re-purpose them into trendy jewelry for everyone to enjoy.

SECOND PLACE TEAMS:

Seascape Totes

School: Canyon Crest Academy
Website: seascapetotes.myshopify.com
IG: @seascapetotes
Our mission is to protect our oceans and marine life from plastic waste by creating reusable tote bags and donating 5% to the non-profit Surfrider Foundation. With the help of local young artists, we hope to spread awareness and sustainability in our community. We have created two ocean-inspired tote bag designs and sell to customers around the world.

CrankRX

School: Canyon Crest Academy
Website: https://crankrx.square.site/
IG: @crankrx.bikes
Our mission at Crank RX is to bring quality, convenient, and stress-free bike repair service to people in San Diego. We want our customers to spend more time focused on the ride rather than the repair.

MOST POWERFUL SOCIAL IMPACT AWARD

What’s in My Bag?

School: e3 Civic High School
Our mission is to stop the omission of factual events in American history so elementary school students gain cultural awareness. The service component is a 45-60 minute puppet show about factual events that happened to various ethnic groups in American history. Our show focuses on the following ethnic groups: Asian, Hispanic, African, and Native Americans.

These young entrepreneurs from all five teams have been nominated to be considered for the national competition held by JA USA. If selected, the team will have the opportunity to pitch their businesses at the 2022 National Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. with 15 other teams from around the country.