Anderson Development Company was eager to participate in the iChallengeU program through Michigan Works! Southeast again this year. This is Anderson Development Company’s fourth year of welcoming students into our facility and presenting them with a challenge to solve.

iChallengeU is a two week educational program, providing high school students the opportunity develop solutions to real world business problems. After the students have developed an answer to the given issue, they present a 10 minute pitch to a panel of 5 judges. The competition was hosted by Baker College in Jackson, Michigan on July 20, 2018.

This year, the students were tasked with the challenge of “How can Anderson Development make manual data entry, specifically expense reporting, more efficient?” The team representing Anderson Development Company, consisted of Lydia Lopez of Tecumseh High School, Destiny Smiddy, Mitchell, Sielsky and Keito Pifer, all Adrian High School. The students were led by educator April Platt of the Lenawee ISD. Jessica Vorhees, Accounting Associate, was the group’s primary contact from Anderson Development Company.

Over the course of the program, the students examined eight solutions. The team ultimately chose one solution to present to Anderson Development Company and for their presentation. The solution could save the company a significant amount of time and money. Overall, the team successfully eliminated a great deal of time in the data entry process and Anderson Development Company will most likely implement some of their ideas in the near future.