The National Black MBA Association has announced its picks for the leaders of tomorrow. Five teams of young men and women from around the nation were awarded a total of $30,000 in prizes for their accomplishments during a recent conference held at Boston’s Bentley University.

“At a time when so much media attention is about how non-competitive Americans are, especially minorities, these extraordinary young people have proven just the opposite,” Kim Wilson recently told PRNewswire.

The award was part of the Leaders of Tomorrow program, a youth mentor program with chapters across North America. Each year the program hosts the Business Case Competition, which challenges minority eighth to twelfth grade youth to practice their analytical thinking and presentation skills.

The students this year spent the two day conference at Bentley University, where they were offered tours including access to the school’s full-time MBA program.

Students in teams of five worked to analyze MBA-level business cases, before presenting their findings to senior executives and Bentley business school faculty, who served as judges.  Among the techniques the students learned was the SWOT analysis, an approach to planning that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a business case. They also used “Porter’s Five Forces,” a technique often used for to analyze industries and evaluate competition.

The Leaders of Tomorrow Case Competition is just one of many programs and events organized by the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA). With over 40 chapters, and nearly 10,000 members, NBMBAA was formed in 1970 to create intellectual and economic wealth in the black community. Its Boston chapter holds events for the Black MBA community every few months.