2026-27 HS National Company Newsletter Competition

COMPETITION OVERVIEW

The company newsletter is used to communicate information to company employees and VE stakeholders. An effective company newsletter will promote the company, highlight successes, keep business partners and investors apprised of the company’s progress, and acknowledge exemplary employees or departments. This competition challenges VE students to showcase their company culture through the submission of an informative and compelling end-of-year company newsletter. 

• Click here to access the competition rubric.
• Click here to watch sample submissions.

CONTENT REQUIREMENTS

• Company & Mission: Include company contact information, mission statement, and information that demonstrates what the company is doing to align with the mission statement.
• Industry Trends & Market News: Include an article related to industry trends and their impact on the company.
• Employee Announcements & Recognition: Demonstrate how the company highlights their employees.
• Company Events: Share what is happening in the organization.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Submit as a single .pdf file to the Competitions Manager.
• Company Newsletters should be no more than 6 pages.
• Maximum file size: 1GB
• One entry per firm. 
• All submissions due by 10:55 PM ET.

JUDGING CRITERIA

• Company & Mission - Does the newsletter provide unique and relevant information about the firm, company mission, and employees?
• Industry Trends and Market News - Does the newsletter contain uniquely appropriate and relevant information about industry trends and real/virtual world news affecting your company’s market? (i.e, timely articles, real and/or virtual industry trends, information about current events affecting the firm)
• Employee Announcements and Recognition - Does the newsletter contain well-developed employee announcements and/or recognition? (i.e, news from the Human Resources department featuring employees of the month, highlighted departments, etc.)
• Company Events - Does the newsletter contain relevant information about the company’s key events? (i.e., professional development opportunities or company retreats such as informational panels, networking sessions, or company gatherings; including relevant keynotes or attendees and how the event met its purpose)
• Presentation - Is the newsletter professionally written and designed? (i.e., well written, clearly articulated, consistent with company branding elements such as logo and colors, original student work, free from spelling and/or grammatical errors, properly formatted, professional, etc.)

CAREER READINESS FRAMEWORK ALIGNMENT

Leadership:

• Demonstrates intrapreneurship
• Operates with purpose
• Brings positivity and purpose
• Promotes well-being

Professional:

• Communicates effectively
• Demonstrates effective project management
• Develops relationships and networks effectively
• Embraces diversity

Functional:

• Understands general business dynamics
• Conducts research and analysis
• Communicates through storytelling

Technology

• Demonstrates fluency with collaboration tools
• Applies appropriate technology to task