High School Students Show That You Don’t Need To Have A Degree To Be Entrepreneurial
(The panel of judges for the final round of presentations)
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Fourteen brilliant business plans, but only one could win the prize of a renewable $12,000 scholarship to Florida Tech and a $2,500 open scholarship. The teams, made up of local high school students, presented ideas that covered the entire spectrum of businesses from a gourmet bakery that offered a build your own cupcake option to a pen that held a microphone and could transfer audio directly into an earpiece via Bluetooth technology.
The JASC Be Entrepreneurial Business Plan Challenge is in its third year and getting stronger. The event is run by Junior Achievement of the Space Coast and sponsored by Florida Tech, the Women’s Business Center, the Balda Family Foundation, Craig Technologies, Peoples Financial Planning, and Founders Forum.
On the morning of December 6th, 2013 the teams assembled and began presenting their plans to a variety of judges including several Florida Tech staff members such as Tim Muth and Dr. Scott Benjamin of the Nathan M. Bisk College of Business; Beth Gitlin, Director of the Women’s Business Center; and several local businessmen.
The competition was fierce but only four teams advanced to the finals where they presented their plans again, this time in front of a much larger audience. The teams were: Inception of Success, a non-profit early learning service; Run Buddy, a mobile application that controls multiple apps while running; iDJ, a program that allowed DJs at parties to ask audiences to vote on what song to play next; and Go Fitness, a business that offered a mobile gym and personal trainer. After their presentation each team was asked questions by a brand new panel of judges as well as a panel of Florida Tech Business students.
The winners for the competition were as follows:
First Place: Go Fitness
Second Place: Run Buddy
Third Place: iDJ
Fourth Place: Inception of Success
Even though the first place team walked away with the scholarship and open scholarship, all fourteen of the teams had refined ideas that interested the judges, most offering genuine advice hoping they would go forth with their plan in the future.
