Danielle, a junior at Archbishop Mitty High School and a Saratoga resident, was assigned the vice president position as part of the Rotary Clubs of San Jose and Los Gatos 2005 Enterprise Leadership Conference.

"It was an eye-opening experience to see what kinds of jobs are out there that you can do," Danielle said.

The 22nd annual conference that focused on the nation's free enterprise system took place March 9­11. Since 1983, the Rotary Clubs have sponsored approximately 1,850 students who have engaged in this unique and creative all-expenses- paid program at Asilomar State Conference Center, near the Monterey beach shoreline in Pacific Grove. Danielle was one of 88 high school juniors selected from a diverse array of private and public schools throughout the Bay Area to attend the high-energy conference.

Danielle was part of a discussion group, that included four male and four female students. The group was one of 11 teams charged with developing a business plan for a product or service conceived by the team members. The teams defined roles for each member, such as chief executive officer, and positions in sales, marketing, engineering and public relations.

John Baird, the event's chairman, said the conference gave students an understanding of how complicated it is to bring a product to market, as well as an understanding of possible careers in business.

"It gives you great faith in young people and the future of free enterprise," he said.

Baird added that the conference wasn't about teaching leadership training, although leadership was embedded in the activities. It was about how to come up with and build a company.

The teams were overseen by Rotarian facilitators or discussion group leaders. The leaders were business owners and entrepreneurs who could assist in the development of each team's virtual business. Danielle's group came up with a fabricated dream catcher product, called "Reminisce." The product printed out a record of a dream to help better understand it.

The group members put together a 10-minute Power Point presentation about their product that they presented before a panel of Rotarian judges. The presentations were created using 15-inch G4 PowerBooks, donated to the conference by Apple.

Students had to do everything from coming up with an operating budget and wages for their employees to developing a business plan and five-year outlook for the company.

"We were up until 3 a.m. doing the marketing presentation," Danielle said, adding that speaking in front of a panel of judges and audience of about 100 people was scary, since she doesn't like public speaking. "As the vice president, I had to present the moral of what we stood for as a company. We had to memorize everything in a couple of hours."

Throughout the conference, Danielle said, participants also listened to lectures from finance and marketing professionals, corporate executives, business owners and those with real-life experience in what the students were learning. One of the panels was on business ethics, Baird said. Through scenarios, the panel members discussed how to build a company on the right values and ethically conduct business.

Danielle, similar to other participants, participated in the conference after submitting an essay and receiving a nomination from her high school counselor. Danielle said the conference gave her a greater overview of future jobs available to her after college.

Robby Perry, who attends Los Gatos High, said he enjoyed spending time with students from other high schools, including Gunderson and Willow Glen. He heard about the conference during a presentation in his history class from two Rotarians and a student who had participated in the conference last year. His team, which also included Brian Lee from Los Gatos High, came up with a product called a "Cup Amore," a coffee mug that could regulate the temperature of its drink.

While his team's presentation didn't finish first, he explained the top three presentations were re-presented by team members during Rotarian meetings following the conference. Baird said the rotary clubs have an interest in potentially gaining some entrepreneurs from the conference.

"It was refreshing to see these kids come together so quickly as a team and come together with this presentation," Baird said.

Presentations ranged from products like a water bladder that ecologically recycled house water to the "LitePak," a backpack lined with helium that made carrying books to class lighter. Los Gatos High's Leslie Anderson was on the team that created "LitePak" and took third place at the end of the conference. Anderson said she was appreciative of the conference because the participants didn't have to pay a cent.

Even though the students missed their normal classes and will have to make up the work, they said it was worth it.

"It's an experience that can't be taught anywhere else besides doing it," Perry said.