Salina students took home cash awards at the recently completed Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge state competition.

The Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge represents the culmination of a sequence of community-based entrepreneurship competitions for students in grades 6-12, known as the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, or YEC, series. Students are selected to compete in KEC by winning a sanctioned YEC series competition or by being selected as one of 16 wildcard participants, who are chosen because of the strength of their executive summary and pre-recorded elevator pitch.

Marshall Zuccarelli, Grady Smith, and Liam Deniau- Young all took home awards after submitting a pitch video and executive business summary, before pitching their business live in front of several panels of judges for this state competition. At the end of the day, all three entrepreneurs walked away with cash prizes.

The Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge is sponsored by Kansas State University Research and Extension, in partnership with the Kansas State University Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship and the Network Kansas Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (YEC) Series, to promote entrepreneurship and small business development in Kansas. The competition is for student created, managed, and owned ventures. It is a premier entrepreneurship competition in the state of Kansas.

The Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge state finals were held in Manhattan earlier this month.