Approximately 35 high school students from various schools in the Kent County Intermediate School District (ISD) participated in the Systems, Applications and Products Young Thinkers Program held at the Seidman College of Business on Friday.

During the event hosted by Grand Valley State University, the SAP University Alliance and General Motors, students in attendance learned about SAP software and enterprise resource planning (ERP) through a simulation game.

Meagan Luttenton-Knoll, a member of the department of management and the SAP University Alliance, said the simulation game consisted of marketing, pricing, selling and distributing bottles of water.

“The game puts teams into a competitive selling frenzy where they have to use standard business reports in SAP to make business decisions,” Luttenton-Knoll said.

Thomas McGinnis, assistant professor of management, said the event focused on helping students understand available opportunities. He said this was not meant to be a recruitment event. Rather, the main goal was for students to understand the importance of SAP.

“Universities like Grand Valley are especially well positioned, in cities like Grand Rapids, to become an active role in the community,” McGinnis said.

McGinnis said the university would like students to attend GVSU, but it is more important for them to make an informed decision on what they want to do.

McGinnis said many students do not learn much by sitting in the classroom, so these kinds of events are very important.

“The change in venue alone excites people,” McGinnis said. “Now they’re more interested, now they’re paying attention. Now they catch something they may not have caught before if we had gone there and lectured.”

During the formation of the event, the ISD reached out to schools throughout the district. Four instructors showed interest, so those instructors were recruited from their campuses.

Bill Dixon, an IT teacher at East Kentwood High School, said he was not aware of the impact ERP has had on the local businesses. Dixon introduced the event to his students by telling them it was an opportunity to network with members of the automobile industry and people in education.

The students’ engagement impressed Dixon: many of the students did not know each other, nor had they worked in a setting like this. However, he said students seemed to be enjoying the program.

Dixon said every student should have at least one opportunity outside of the classroom to collaborate with their peers and students from other schools. Events like this advance students’ abilities and social skills, as well as give them real-world experience outside of the classroom, he said.

Nancy McKenzie, STEM coordinator at Kentwood Public Schools, said it is hugely important for students to be able to apply what they learn in the classroom.

“Seeing beyond what a classroom book or computer can teach them is invaluable,” McKenzie said.

Eric Myers, project manager at Johnson Controls, said it is important to give students a practical understanding of what they might do in the workplace.

Myers wants to help GVSU integrate more students into ERP. He said GVSU is graduating many students they would like to hire, but they are not graduating enough of them. This event helps those students gain interest in a career like this, and it can prove more efficient that just presenting in the classroom.