According to the Harvard Business School Online, “In any business setting, professionals rely on communication to coordinate efforts and accomplish organizational goals.” This is the purpose of the Amazing Shake. The Amazing Shake starts with all scholars in 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade and then the contestants are narrowed down to the top 40, top 24, top 5, and finally the winner. In order to win, contestants must go through challenges to show their character, professionalism, communication skills, and how to handle different scenarios. The first challenge was the gauntlet where contestants had to go to 25 stations with 1 minute at each station. The different stations ranged from teaching people how to surf, calming down angry customers, or even having conversations with someone new in town. They were judged by how they handled each situation and the scholars with the highest gauntlet scores advanced in the competition to the top 40. 
When asked about his experience with the Amazing Shake, Donovan Downer (6th grade) said, “ I think my experience with the amazing shake is that it’s really teaching me stuff. I’m really learning life lessons. I’m learning stuff for the future that will help me when I’m an adult.”
Furthermore, after the top 40 are chosen the contestants are then advanced to the next challenge, to determine the top 24. The competition was a Q&A where the contestants with the highest scores moved to the top 24; this year the competition resulted in a 4- way tie. To break this tie they made the 4 pick another question and whoever got the highest 2 scores from those 4 would advance to the next level.
The next day the Top 24 had to go through a new set of challenges, the Circle of Doom, Interviews, and Work the Room. The Circle of Doom was a shark-tank like setting where the Top 24 were asked questions by judges and had 1 minute to answer. In the Interviews, the Top 24 are asked questions as if in an Interview, and lastly Work the Room, where the Top 24 were given a set amount of time with a room of judges and make a connection with them while also competing with the others in the room. It was then announced the Top 8, who then had a debate to decide the Top 5.
When asked how she felt about making it to the top 40 and top 24 Brianna Siguenza (5th grade) said, “ I am very happy about it and very proud that I went this far.”
After the debates the top 5 are chosen by judges based on how well they answer questions, present their arguments, and defend their points. The top 5 chosen are Charlee Stepan, eighth grade, Aylie Owens, eighth grade, Aila Liverotti, eighth grade, Paisley Reyes, seventh grade, Reagan Kendall, eighth grade. The next stop for these five is a professional lunch and one on one interviews with a NFL player Bruce Dunn who played for the Kansas City Chiefs. At the professional lunch, judges will be looking at scholars etiquette, how they treat the wait staff, and how they treat each other. The interview and lunch determines the top 3 who will advance in the competition. The top 3 get to go to the Ron Clark Academy in Georgia. The final winner is then picked by Bruce Dunn based off of the interviews.
When asked how she felt about winning 1st place out of the top 5 Charlee Stepan (8th grade) said, “ It feels good because I was kinda stressed out, but I was also confident after I did the debate, because I knew my resources and everything, so I was confident I was going to place.”
The Amazing Shake is an experience 5th through 8th grade scholars are able to participate in where they learn professionalism, how to deal with difficult situations, and how to present themselves.
