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Struthers students take on the 'Shark Tank' challenge
Students take on challenge of making business pitches
STRUTHERS
About two dozen Struthers Middle School students made their first business pitches recently in the school’s first “Wildcat Cage,” a “Shark Tank”-style challenge based on the ABC reality TV show.
The show features entrepreneurs who pitch their business ideas to a panel of “sharks” who will either fund or reject their plans.
Jennifer Ragusa, a special-education teacher, said the challenge was a collaboration among all Struthers eighth-grade students and teachers in which students used different aspects in each of their classes to come up with a business plan to create an eco-friendly, sustainable restaurant in an assigned area of the U.S. She said the students were divided
into teams of four, and the best six ideas had to be presented in front of the student body Monday along with a panel of five judges from around Mahoning County.
“Naturally, our judges ... had to at least like the idea and be sold that [the students’] restaurant could physically work,” Ragusa said. “We spent about a week as a team, teaching these kids how to make a sales pitch and all about sustainability in business designs.”
Ragusa said every class was involved in the project, including music and art.
Kylie Thomas, one of the students who presented in the challenge, said that it took a lot of time outside of class with her team to prepare for the event.
“We knew we wanted to impress the judges, so we put a lot of time into this project last week, researching and getting our facts right inside and outside of class,” Thomas said. She said that though she can’t picture herself as an entrepreneur, she thinks the event helped prepare her for high-school and college classes.
Pete Pirone, principal of Struthers Middle School, said all judges for Monday’s event had some background in either education, sustainability or the restaurant industry. Judges included Ron Iarussi from the Mahoning County Educational Service Center, Jason Braddock from STEM+ME2 Academy, superintendent Joseph Nohra, Bradley Miller of Suzie’s Dogs and Drafts and Peg Flynn of the Green Team.
“We made connections with these guys early on in the school year and had two of them, [Flynn] and [Miller], present to the kids in class on what we were looking for,” Pirone said.
Students chosen to present their sustainable restaurant pitches dressed in suit jackets, ties, skirts and blouses to show they had a professional side to them. Though there were some dropped microphones and stumbling over judges’ questions, teachers and judges agreed the students did better than they expected they would.
“I didn’t think they’d be terrible, but the kids definitely blew me away,” said Miller, executive chef at Suzie’s Dogs and Drafts. “Their ideas were extremely sustainable.”
Pirone said that historically, the eighth-grade teachers try to put together a collaborative project for students in the fall. He said he thinks the event went well — parents showed up to the event and other students in other classes came to watch. He said the event likely will stay for next year.