Students Win Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge

Salina students displayed their entrepreneurial projects at an annual competition. The Salina Area Chamber of Commerce, in association with the Network Kansas E-Community Partnership, hosted its eleventh annual Saline County Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge at Salina Area Technical College.

According to the Chamber, twenty-four individuals and teams representing Salina South High School, Salina Central High School, and Ell-Saline Jr-Sr High School presented their business concepts to teams of volunteer judges from the community for an opportunity to hone their business pitch skills and win cash prizes. Competition included a written executive summary, a formal
presentation to judges, and a tradeshow display.

Winning students received $1,200 total in prize money from Network Kansas. The winning concepts were:

1st Prize ($500): Liam Deniau-Young, HiCo
2nd Prize ($350): Noah Peck, Peck Scrubs
3rd Prize ($200): Marshall Zuccarelli, Polished Panels
4th Prize ($100): Oscar Perez, OP Lawn Services
5th Prize ($50): Alibbea Mong, The Basket Boutique
People’s Choice Award ($25 Smoky Hill Silver): Hannah Miller, The Write Path

“The Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge is truly my favorite day of the year. It is so much fun interacting with the students and hearing them pitch their creative ideas,” said Jaclyn
Crow, Economic & Workforce Development Director with the Salina Area Chamber, “Thinking like an entrepreneur helps students become more confident in their abilities to
make decisions, take risks, and bounce back from failure. They may also develop a passion that could change the trajectory of their life.”

In addition to prizes and recognition, the first-place finisher is automatically eligible to compete in the Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge (KEC) at Kansas State University in Manhattan. This event will include the top young entrepreneurs from schools across the state and is hosted in partnership with Network Kansas, K-State Research and Extension, and the K-State Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship.

The goal of the competition is to expose Kansas middle school and high school students to entrepreneurship and give them hands-on experience. The students’ work is judged by local volunteers who are entrepreneurs, public sector partners, teachers, or other professionals.

_ _ _

Visit www.networkkansas.com to learn more about Network Kansas and the E-Community Partnership.

Photos via Kerrigan Hutton/Salina Area Chamber of Commerce

Top Photo: All Winners