Students compete for cash

Staff report

GROVE CITY, PA.

After months of work, collaboration and specialized training, 20 high-school seniors from the pilot cohort of Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV’s Entrepreneurship Academy@Lindenpointe competed for cash prizes at an academy business competition.

The “Shark Tank”-like event at Grove City College’s Pew Fine Arts Center was the culminating event of the school year.

Created by Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV in partnership with the eCenter@LindenPointe, the city of Hermitage and the Franklin Center of Beaver County, The Entrepreneurship Academy@LindenPointe began its pilot year last September.

The program is funded in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development’s Discovered in PA, Developed in PA program.

The inaugural class of high school seniors from seven Mercer County schools attended regular classes in their home districts each morning. Every Monday through Thursday, they traveled to the eCenter@LindenPoint for the remainder of the school day.

Teacher Lisa Evans, a certified teacher and experienced entrepreneur, coached and guided the students through experiences such as Twitter Tuesdays, trio teaching, virtual meetings with young entrepreneurs, excursions to area businesses and team building activities.

At the beginning of the year, students formed business teams. With cash prizes and bragging rights at stake, each team operated to create a business plan to showcase at the final competition. As they learned about business concepts such as sales, marketing, operations, technology and finance, the teams fine-tuned their plans.

Students and judges were provided with scoring criteria to guide them and ultimately determine the winners. Two-thirds of the scoring was focused on the written plan while a third concentrated on the final presentation.

A panel of expert judges including Yvonne English (eCenter@Lindenpointe), Kyle English (eCenter@Lindenpointe), Georgia Macris (Penn State Shenango), Michael Wachter (Penn State Shenango), Sean Zippie (Lems Shoes) read the business plans prior to observing the live presentations. After each team’s presentation, the judges asked questions and engaged the students in productive dialogue about their business plans and presentations.

Six teams competed for cash prizes donated by Winner International, Gilbert’s Risk Solutions and Ekker, Kuster, McCall, & Epstein Attorneys at Law. The first-place team received $2,500 while the second-place team received $1,250 to be divided among all team members.

First prize was awarded to Rhodora Technology. Team members included Michael Bonnett (Commodore Perry School District), Brianna Dzuricsko (Hermitage School District), Nick Rainey (Sharon City School District) and Jess Trowbridge (West Middlesex Area School District). Rhodora Technology created a scheduling app for local, small businesses and their customers. It allows consumers to conveniently schedule appointments from a mobile device while saving small-business owners and operators the time.

The second-place team, FootMark Tracking, developed a device to help archery hunters easily locate their arrows using sound. Members of the FootMark Tracking team included Jaylin Archie (Farrell Area School District), Kyle Boyd (Hermitage School District), Grayden Sobol (Sharpsville Area School District).

“The overarching goal for the entire year was to teach students how to think and act like professionals and simulate the experiences and challenges of real-life entrepreneurs,” said Anthony Conti, MIU IV’s program coordinator. “Our secondary goal was to expose the students to as many different industries as possible. We wanted them to see how businesses work in our area and investigate the many opportunities in our region.”