Students visit US on commerce tour

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-777" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;The&lowbar;PNBHS&lowbar;Commerce&lowbar;Tour&lowbar;2014&lowbar;300x225&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The PNBHS Commerce Tour 2014 300x225" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"225" &sol;>Palmerston North Boys&&num;8217&semi; High School hopes to build the business leaders and entrepreneurs of the future when it embarks on a commerce tour of the United States later this month&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Forty senior students will leave New Zealand for a series of meetings and presentations by outstanding US companies and tertiary institutes&period;
What makes this commerce tour even more interesting is that Palmerston North Boys&&num;8217&semi;High School has been able to tap into an extraordinary network of former Kiwis and expat business executives &lpar;many who are old boys of the school&rpar; and who are now operating companies in the US&comma; from successful start-ups such as Wildfire Interactive &lpar;sold to Google Inc&period;&rpar; and Xero&comma; to large Fortune 500 companies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;There is a huge international resource of New Zealand-grown talent living and working around the globe that were more than willing to offer their advice and make future connections for our young men&comma;&&num;8221&semi; head of commerce at Palmerston North Boys&&num;8217&semi; High School&comma; Mr Graham Black&comma; says&period; Mr Black is leading the tour&period;&nbsp&semi;&&num;8220&semi;It is just a matter of tapping into this resource&comma; which it has taken a team of us around two years to do&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The school believes that business education must go beyond books and the classroom&comma; and that students should be given the opportunity to experience first-hand what is possible&period; Catherine Robinson agrees&period; Catherine&comma; formerly from Wellington&comma; is now based in San Francisco&comma; where she founded the business incubator Kiwi Landing Pad for New Zealand IT and &&num;8216&semi;high tech&&num;8217&semi; companies wanting to establish a presence for themselves in the United States&period; Catherine believes that there is a tremendous opportunity to sow the seeds of business innovation and entrepreneurship early in one&&num;8217&semi;s career and applauds the approach that the school is taking with the Commerce Tour&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Kiwi Landing Pad will be one of the stops for the commerce tour in San Francisco&period;
 For those travelling&comma; this tour is not a case of sitting back and enjoying the hospitality of their hosts&semi; each student member of the commerce tour will be engaged in an &&num;8216&semi;Apprentice&&num;8217&semi; style competition throughout his time in the US&period; Students have all been allocated into business teams&comma; where they will be set business challenges and Apprentice-styled tasks&comma; and ultimately compete for the Best Young Businessman of the Tour&period;
 <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Palmerston North Boys&&num;8217&semi; High School would like to acknowledge the assistance of many local businesses and old boys&comma; without whose help and support this tour would not have happened&period; The school also acknowledges the support of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise&comma; who offered planning support during the early stages and also shares the school&&num;8217&semi;s belief in developing business innovation and entrepreneurship among our emerging New Zealand business talent&period;
 <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The tour arrives at Los Angeles today&comma; April 16&period; After meetings and presentations in Southern California&comma; they will then travel to San Francisco before flying to the East Coast where they will visit companies and institutions in New York and Boston&period; The commerce tour arrives back at New Zealand on Saturday&comma; May 3&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;