Students awarded for business ideas at 2023 Entrepreneurship Challenge

Around 30 students from Salina Public Schools tapped into their creative and innovative skillsets to create a business that competed for top prizes in an entrepreneurship challenge this week.

The USD 305 Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge is an event in collaboration with the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce, where students at Salina Public Schools have the opportunity to create a business model and pitch their ideas to judges.

Wednesday's event marked the sixth consecutive year of the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge.

How the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge works

Students went into the event March 1 having already submitted an executive summary online. The deadline to submit was Feb. 24, and was hosted through VentureDash, a digital platform known for business competitions. As the first step, those executive summaries get judged online before the event.

Then the in-person event Wednesday featured the tradeshow, where students talked about their business to those visiting their respective booths, and formal presentations, limited to five minutes and set up as a pitch to judges.

The executive summaries, trade show presentations and formal presentations had equal weight contributions of 33.3% for their overall score tabulations.

To select judges, the Chamber asks sponsor organizations if anyone is interested, asks around the Salina community for volunteers and takes advantage of long-term judges who have been a part of the event since its inception.

"Certainly we put out a call to anybody who is really interested in doing this as a member of the community − business leaders, community leaders − because all of that input and questions that they could potentially ask is great for our students," said Renee Duxler, interim president and CEO of the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce.

The annual event was held at Salina Area Technical College again this year. While the event is currently made up of Salina Central and Salina South High School students, the Chamber has been exploring options to open the event up to area parochial and private schools, and the Ell-Saline and Southeast of Saline school districts as well.

Some businesses from the challenge have gone on to become a long-term success locally. Mason Bettles' "Bettles Mobile Car Detailing" was a second-place winner in the challenge a couple years ago and still continues to do detailing.

Meet a couple of this year's young entrepreneurs

Liam Deniau-Young's business called "The Spindle & Chisel Woodworks" earned third place Wednesday. His business specializes in handmade woodworking with a focus on small decorative items.

"Everything I make is handmade, not from machines compared to some of our competitors," Deniau-Young said.

His handmade items, like sheep, rabbits, Christmas trees and bowls are perfect for gifts, he said, and come at a lower cost than what one might find online.

"Our prices are a lot lower. Etsy, for example, you would find a Christmas tree like mine for about $50, and about $35 on Amazon." Deniau-Young said. "For us, it's only $25."

Denau Young sources his wood for projects both locally and out of state. Some woods that are harder to come by he orders online.

Sophia Osborn's business, "Sunn Bakery," specializes in baked goods and snacks that people don't have to sacrifice their diets to enjoy. The word "Sunn" is the Norwegian word for "healthy."

"At Sunn Bakery, we fully believe that there should be healthy, affordable and protein-filled goods so that people don't have to lose their diets, or have a cheat day in order to have tasty treats," Osborn said.

Osborn said she plans to run her business as a sole proprietorship. The high school sophomore said classes in leadership and business prepared her well to formulate a plan around a bakery business.

It will sell everything from cookies, cupcakes, scones, banana bread, and waffles. A unique option at Sunn Bakery is their snack, which provides variety and range in price. It would start off as an at-home business but as it makes money, she said she would like to have a downtown location.

Emily Truong, a sophomore at Salina South, presented her business "Dew Shine" Wednesday. Her business provides a variety of graphic design services.

"All we really advocate for is happy customers," Truong said.

Utilizing industry standards for digital media and print design, Truong's business looks to help provide solutions to companies through thoughtful and innovative designs.

To start, it would just be Truong making the designs, but if the company made enough, she would later hire more designers to tackle larger and long-term projects.

This year's winners

In the past, the competition awarded 1st through 3rd place winners. This year, the event's sponsor, Network Kansas, was so impressed with the group of competitors that they added another $250 in cash prizes the day of the event, adding 4th and 5th place winners.

This year's USD 305 Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge winners are as follows:

1st Place ($500): Brooks Richardson with LakeSide Cleanings

2nd Place ($350): Allison Johnson with Pumphouse Fitness & Cafe

3rd Place ($200): Liam Dinau-Young with The Spindle & Chisel Woodworks

4th Place ($150): Donald Crawford III with Jeweler's Emporium

5th Place ($100): Parker Graves and Jesus Delgado with Sleevies

In addition to top prizes, there was a "People's Choice" award that those who attended the trade show portion of the event could vote on. This year's USD 305 Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge People's Choice award winner was Noah Peck with his business Shaggy & Sharp. He received $50 in Smoky Hill certificates.

Kendrick Calfee has been a reporter with the Salina Journal since 2022, primarily covering county government and education. You can reach him at kcalfee@gannett.com or on Twitter @calfee_kc.

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Students awarded in USD 305 Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge