A friend’s struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder inspired a trio of business management students to think about how to address the condition.
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Unexpectedly, their idea eventually took out top gong in a statewide commerce competition at Melbourne’s Victoria University.
Catholic College Wodonga’s Lachie Whiteley, Sam Hill and Bryce Haley were tasked with thinking of a program on how best to deal with mental health disorders.
They came up with a business plan which involved taking struggling farmers off hunting and shooting to get back to basics and distract them from their demons.
This idea won in the social social enterprise category of Vic Uni’s I Plan a Business awards – outdoing more than 150 entries from 25 schools across the state.
Sam said their program was specifically aimed at those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder –something akin to the men’s shed movement.
“We take post-traumatic stress sufferers out, hopefully in groups at a time, and that way we can get a bit of a camp experience going,” he said.
“We’ll also take a volunteer counsellor with us, so if there’s any troubles they can help sort it out.
“We take them doing recreational activities.
“It could be bike riding, skiing, hunting, fishing, hiking, or just camping.
“If they go hunting and get anything, we can harvest that and turn it into jerky.”
But the award was not won on just a vague business pitch.
The boys had to do costings for everything from a business management plan to advertising, which was made into a portfolio and then submitted online to judges.
Business management teacher Alison Leahy viewed the competition as a brilliant opportunity to bring the content to life.
“To just get the students really thinking about what’s possible,” she told The Border Mail. “So I did get quite hands-off in the process but I was still guiding what they were needing to be thinking about, probably trying to give them some ideas along the way, trying to inspire a bit of creativity.
“They were focused on the social enterprise aspect of it.”
The business plan started off as a class project as part of the subject’s unit one curriculum, which provided an incentive for students to do well in class but also have a crack at external prizes.
Ms Leahy said about 70 per cent of Catholic College Wodonga’s year 12 cohort chose to go on to study at university after completing their VCE.
While many opted to go to Melbourne, Sydney or Canberra, Ms Leahy said she believed business courses at Border campuses La Trobe and CSU were both top tier options.