Southern Tier's Youngest Entrepreneurs Compete

5/18/2012 (Updated 6:45:08 PM)

(Source: Kate Thornton)

Sticky-Icky, Press N' Dress, and Sun Smart are some of the names of what could be future products and services.

More than 100 students from seven local high schools competed in the Greater Binghamton Scholastic Challenge.  The students had the opportunity to explore entrepreneurship through an innovative business plan and present them in front of a panel of judges.

The school that participated were Union-Endicott, Johnson City, Binghamton, Newark Valley, Maine-Endwell, Broome-Tioga BOCES, and Susquehanna Valley.

The students have been working on their projects since December to prepare for Friday's competition.

The groups were divided into different divisions, such as Consumer, Technology, Entertainment, and Healthcare.

Binghamton High School Senior Gary Benjamin said his team was there to win.  "We do have competition but we plan to come in here in full-force, and if anything we're going to make sure that we make it all the way to the win," said Benjamin.

Each group participating has been put into different divisions, from technology, to consumer, to entertainment"

The goal was to obviously to wow the judges with the best business plan but the students were getting much more out of the competition.  Most of the students want to be business majors in college so they are learning important skills they will have to apply in real life.

Maine-Endwell Junior David Gilinksy said that by doing the competition is has made him and his teammates realize how great of an opportunity it was to get a head start in the business world.  "It puts you in a really good mind set for the future and makes you realize that we can become entrepreneurs."

"It's not something you learn in a book," said President of ICS Solutions Group Kevin Blake.  "It's communication skills.  It's thinking out of the box, working as a team, talking in public.  Most of these kids are going to college and it's just a big help to them."

Advisers hope that the students will someday start their own business back in the Southern Tier to help the local economy.

"These kid are getting this opportunity through business education to e able to start their own business," said Maine-Endwell Business Teacher Julie Keenan.  "Hopefully they can give back to the community by remembering shere they're from, grow some roots, make more jobs, hopefully help out the economy.  That's our goal, that's what we want."




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