This weekend, five teams of high school students from across Rhode Island won a share of $9,000 as part of Lt. Governor Dan McKee's Entrepreneurship Challenge, a business pitch competition for students to compete for thousands of dollars in post-secondary scholarships.
Over 40 teams from high schools across the state participated in round one of the challenge by crafting detailed written business plans that address marketing, growth strategies, market conditions and more.
During this weekend's Final Competition at the New England Institute of Technology, the top five teams presented their business pitches to a panel of Rhode Island millennial business owners and received scholarships based on their pitch scores:
-1st place: $4,000 scholarship - Vadati VR by Sree Dasari of La Salle Academy
-2nd place: $2,000 scholarship - Loop & Knot by Malitey Mullings of the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center
-3rd place: $1,500 scholarship - Swanson Capital by Max Swanson, Nathan Watts and Ryan Watts of Ponaganset High School
-4th place: - $1,000 scholarship - KL Consulting by Kerrie Larson of Mt. Hope High School
-5th place: $500 scholarship - Food from Friends by Zara Salem, Teo Milner, Brooke Nyman and Noah Werbel of Moses Brown.
"Congratulations to the first group of Lt. Governor's Entrepreneurship Challenge scholarship recipients and all participants who shared their entrepreneurial dreams with us," said McKee. "Thank you to the Credit Unions of Rhode Island for sponsoring this important program and Millennial Rhode Island for being a fantastic partner and helping us encourage young people to Choose Rhode Island."
The challenge is sponsored by the Credit Unions of Rhode Island and hosted in partnership with Millennial RI.