Student entrepreneurs compete in business challenge

Students brainstorm ideas for Biz challenge

More than 100 students from the St. Joseph School District participated in the districts first annual Cool Biz Challenge Thursday at EmpowerU.

“The students have an opportunity to be creative and innovative,” said Lisa Miller with the St. Joseph School District. “They have to develop a new product, or modify an existing product, or come up with a new service to relate to one of the four generations. Baby boomers, generation x, generation y, generation z.”

Miller said student then had to present their ideas and plan to a panel of judges, similar to the TV series ‘Shark Tank’.

“We’re always looking for opportunities for students to get out and work with business owners, meet other entrepreneurs,” said Miller. “So we bring the kids here, bring the business people here and they get to network together.”

Benton High School Senior, Breanna Phillips said her team is created a washing machine you can control with your phone.

“We are creating a washer that has different compartments and we’re hooking and app up to it so say you’re at a game or something and you need something washed for the next day but you don’t have enough time to do it you can go to your app and it will start your washer up for you and there’s actually a dryer hooked up to it,” she said.

Cool Biz Challenge panel judge Lute Atieh, Chief Operations Officer with American Business & Technology University said the event is a way to get kids looking towards the future.

“What we’re doing is presenting some best practices,” Atieh said. “They can ask questions and we can give advice.”

Atieh said each winner is also awarded a $1000 scholarships to attend American Business & Technology University, and software to help with their future businesses.