Teenage innovators
Regional, international youth attend inaugural entrepreneurship summit
8:33 a.m., May 7, 2015--Last week more than 200 high school students and teachers attended the inaugural Youth Entrepreneurship Summit (YES!), presented in partnership by the University of Delaware’s Horn Program in Entrepreneurship and Capital One.
The summit brought together high school students and educators from the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, along with youth from Moldova, Georgia, Tunisia and Kenya for a day of innovation and entrepreneurship.
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The program featured the Diamond Challenge for High School Entrepreneurs global business concept competition, as well as workshops and real youth entrepreneurs who shared their experiences as young founders.
Horn Program external programs coordinator Julie Frieswyk called the summit “an extremely positive day.”
“The students were exposed to new ideas and connections,” Frieswyk said. “That’s what we hope to do: inspire them to think about new paths and new possibilities.”
The event kicked off with a keynote presentation from 19-year-old Megan Grassell, founder of Yellowberry, a unique bra company for young girls.
Grassell discussed her journey as a young business owner, from the first product prototypes arriving on her doorstep to her Kickstarter campaign going viral to being voted one of Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential Teens of 2014.
“It was an incredible experience to have lived through that,” said Grassell, adding that she now “understands how important the brand and the story were to the product and the company itself.”
She advised her young audience to be unafraid of reaching out to new connections.
“If the worst answer you can get is no, then you should always put yourself out there,” Grassell said. “Through that I was able to meet some incredible mentors and advisers who have helped me make decisions as I move forward with Yellowberry.”
Attendees then had the opportunity to participate in breakout sessions throughout the day.
Margaret O’Dwyer, founder and chairman of the Delaware Youth Leadership Network, led one such session, which explored “Finding Your Leadership Style.”
During the session, students were given a selection of quotes from noted leaders throughout history and asked to choose one that resonated with them. Each quote was representative of a leadership style, like affiliative, democratic or transformational.
O’Dwyer explained that although leaders may prefer a particular leadership style, they shouldn’t limit themselves to only one set of skills.
“The best leaders switch styles depending on the situation,” O’Dwyer said. “They have to take different tools out of their toolkits and know when to apply them.”
Another session, “Turning Your Passion into Your Job,” was led by Alexa Curtis, creator of Life in the Fashion Lane blog, and Emma Johnson, creator of Em John jewelry company.
Curtis and Johnson discussed the importance of using social media to market a business on a regular basis.
“I think the most important thing is to be consistent,” said Curtis.
Johnson agreed, adding that entrepreneurs should “make sure that everything is new and different, but you’re keeping your audience active.”
“It all comes from social media and reaching out to people,” Johnson said. “Not being afraid is huge.”
Meanwhile, high school-level educators attended a workshop about teaching entrepreneurial skills taught by Horn Program director Dan Freeman.
Freeman shared the entrepreneurial education model used at UD and explained how it can be used to teach entrepreneurial skills to young students.
During lunch, students and teachers participated in an interactive workshop hosted by The Fun Dept.’s Nat Measley, which emphasized the importance of incorporating fun activities into a company’s culture. Students worked in groups to brainstorm fun and exciting activities that could be incorporated into a normal workday.
After lunch, Mac Nagaswami, UD alumnus and founder of Wilmington-based company Carvertise, moderated a panel of young entrepreneurs who shared their perspective on running real businesses as teenagers.
Grassell joined Curtis and Johnson on the panel along with Patrick Finnegan, digital media pioneer and founder of includinglimitlesstimes.com and onmsg.com.
Panelists answered questions like, “What does a normal day in your life look like?” and “Were you ever intimated during a business meeting because of your age?”
Each speaker stressed the importance of hard work and following passions at any age.
Diamond Challenge finals
The event concluded with the Diamond Challenge’s final rounds, during which local and international teams of high school-aged students presented business concepts to an expert panel of judges.
Judges included Paul McConnell of McConnell Johnson Real Estate; Andrea Tinianow, director of corporate and international development for the state of Delaware; Lisa Ford, director of digital marketing strategy at Capital One; and Grassell of Yellowberry.
After project presentations, an awards ceremony presented Diamond Challenge teams with shares of a $25,000 prize pool, to use toward starting their businesses or pursuing higher education.
First place and $7,500 was awarded to Spell for Success, led by high school students Shreyas Parab and Sriram Hathwar. Parab and Hathwar’s high schools also received $1,000 in funding to put towards entrepreneurial education.
Spell for Success is a mobile application designed to help spellers prepare for the National Spelling Bee.
The team said that they are “elated” by their win and that it represents the beginning of an exciting journey.
“This was just the first step,” said Parab. To other students interested in starting their own business he said, “It’s a daunting task, but you can do it.”
Second place went to Value Addition for Short Seasoned Foods, led by Jackline Ndungu, Elizabeth Ngure, Margaret Gitau and Margaret Njunguna of Kenya. The team received $5,000 and an additional $750 for their school.
The team’s business concept addresses the problem of low profits in agriculture, which leads to inadequate food supply as farmers opt for more profitable crops. The project aims to increase agricultural profitability by adding value to short season foods.
Third place team Enkel Tech, led by students Eva Dickerson, Felix Munther and Kierian Prince, developed a mobile application that provides users with crowdsourced wait times to local restaurants. Team Enkel Tech was awarded $2,500 and their school, $500.
An additional prize was awarded to the business concept that promised to improve the social and economic wellbeing of people and their communities. This $2,500 award went to Modern Reflections, led by Evelina Bunici, Ludmilla Zgurean and Maria Mogildea of Moldova.
Modern Reflections creates fashionable clothing and accessories with the added benefit of reflectivity. The company also supports families whose lives have been impacted by traffic accidents.
Several teams also received honorable mentions for their unique ideas and were given prizes of $500. These business concepts included:
- Cool Beans, led by Logan Dollinger and Erica VanVessen
- Tomorrow School, led by Yahia Bouhlel and Shadi Ghanem
- Smartest, led by Cristian Chivriga and Adrian Sirbu
- Eau de Manly Man, by Jake Kahoe and Rawlison Zhang
This year’s summit was also supported by the Paul and Linda McConnell Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative, created by a gift made to UD by alumnus Paul McConnell and his wife Linda to support and expand youth entrepreneurship programming.
The Jefferson Awards Foundation’s GlobeChangers was announced as a new partner for next year’s Diamond Challenge event. The summit will take place again in mid-April 2016; the date and location are still being determined.
Registration for next year’s Diamond Challenge will open in September of this year. This innovative business concept competition teaches participants how to build their businesses like scientists by gathering evidence to test the validity of business model assumptions.
To learn more about the Youth Entrepreneurship Summit, the Diamond Challenge for High School Entrepreneurs and the Horn Program’s youth programming, contact Julie Frieswyk by email at julief@udel.edu.
Article by Sunny Rosen and Stefanie Spatola