High schoolers take on CEO, VP roles at company being run out of school classroom

Grade 12 students May Sharma and Sean Choeni, centre left and right, speak to their peers and co-workers at Lillian Osborne High School in April 2024. The students built an aromatherapy roller company called Aura through the Junior Achievement program. (Galen McDougall / CTV News Edmonton)

The next generation of entrepreneurs isn't waiting around to learn how to develop their passion. 

At Lillian Osborne High School in south Edmonton, 20 students each pitched in $10 to get their aromatherapy roller company Aura off the ground. 

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The stakeholders double as executives: Grade 12 students May Sharma and Sean Choeni are the CEO and vice president of sales, respectively. 

"The whole process – from production to marketing to financial statements and taxes – everything the students get to learn," Sharma told CTV News Edmonton in a recent interview. 

Most impressive to their sponsor teacher is the fact that none will receive school credit for the personal time they've put in; they built Aura through the Junior Achievement program, which helps youth explore and develop entrepreneurship. 

Junior Achievement helped the Lillian Osborne team get the certifications it needed, open bank accounts, and provided guidance through product development and timelines. 

Aura sells two scents made from organic essential oils online and around Edmonton: jasmine sandalwood and peppermint eucalyptus. The former is meant to help comfort and calm the wearer, while the latter is supposed to relieve stress and pain. 

"Mental health, self care, is something that everyone should be advocating for and if not, at least be informed on. So we're trying to make sure our social media presence, through our Instagram, we're educating people," Choeni said. 

The student leaders were very deliberate about wanting to move away from gendered marketing, making it one of three foundational principles alongside environmental sustainability and mental health. 

"Based off the market research that we did, we found that (aromatherapy) was given a very feminine connotation, so it was also very implied that it wasn't really for men and more so for women," Sharma said. 

"There's no really right way to label aromatherapy. It's more so for mental health and helping people feel better about themselves through scent and through the effects of the properties within the scents, as well." 

In addition to a revenue target of $9,000, the students behind Aura want to donate 10 per cent of its revenue to community. 

Reflecting on her understanding of entrepreneurship before joining the program, Sharma, who will be studying business at the University of Alberta in the fall, said, "I was always under the impression that being a CEO was just about management or leadership or just delegating tasks and making sure that everything works smoothly. 

"But honestly, being a CEO…means that I embody a vision that I have for this company, which is to help others while helping the community. And I work with my team to get them inspired with the same vision so we can all get on the same page and translate that into a product." 

"I applaud them for their ambition. It's a great goal," said their science teacher Hinson Chan. 

"It's also important for them to find some extra curricular activities that they are passionate about and they also can express themselves and just be part of a group."

This is the third year Lillian Osborne High School students have participated in the Junior Achievement program. 

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nahreman Issa