DELTONA — With desires of pursuing an entrepreneurial profession, a number of Volusia County high-schoolers took a giant step towards their objective final week.
On Tuesday, the district hosted the primary version of its new CTE (Profession and Technical Schooling) Pitch Competitors, which featured roughly 20 Volusia college students from 5 totally different colleges who pitched their very own enterprise concepts to native entrepreneurs who judged the competition.
The successful presentation gained a scholarship prize and a assured spot on the Community for Educating Entrepreneurship regional and nationwide tournaments, in Miami and New York respectively later this yr.
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NFTE is a global nonprofit group “centered on bringing the facility of entrepreneurship to youth in low-income communities,” based on its web site.
Presenting individually or in groups of two, college students have been divided into 4 totally different rooms all through the Middle at Deltona, the place they offered to a panel of roughly 5 judges.
Collaborating colleges have been Mainland Excessive Faculty, Burns Sci-Tech Excessive Faculty, College Excessive Faculty, DeLand Excessive Faculty and T. Dewitt Taylor Center-Excessive Faculty.
Bradley Covino, a 15-year-old pupil from Burns Sci-Tech Excessive Faculty in Oak Hill, was one of many presenters.
Covino got here up with an concept for a totally computerized pressure-cleaning system beneath the corporate title “Strain Prince.”
“(Entrepreneurship) is a discipline I’ve all the time I wished to be in, as a result of I wish to take my concepts and put them into perspective and make them one thing greater and higher,” Covino stated. “That is simply one of many steps I really feel like would assist me progress and get higher.”
He stated he plans to proceed pursuing his concept sooner or later, irrespective of the occasion’s final result.
“I nonetheless wish to pursue an entrepreneurial profession,” he stated. “I believe this can be a cool option to begin.”
CTE recognition in Volusia Colleges
Like Covino, the competing college students competing on the occasion take part in Volusia County’s CTE program, which affords “profession pathways from highschool to post-secondary schooling, together with dual-enrollment and articulated credit score in addition to over 45 business certification credentials,” based on this system’s web site.
One such profession path is enterprise administration and administration, which additionally contains entrepreneurship and a curriculum created by NFTE.
“They train college students, from the start to the tip, easy methods to get into the entrepreneurial mindset,” stated Vince Roeshink, a CTE specialist with Volusia County Colleges, who was accountable for the occasion. “From there, they create a enterprise concept, and from the concept they attempt to create all the pieces that it could want to begin a enterprise and get the enterprise going.”
This system affords an alternative choice to college students who don’t really feel increased schooling is the trail for them.
“It’s been actually fashionable in highschool ranges educating this sort of content material, as a result of some college students don’t wish to go on to increased schooling,” Roeshink stated. “So this can be a approach for them to form of get into that mindset and possibly they will begin a enterprise proper after highschool.”
Volusia Colleges Superintendent Carmen Balgobin stated every of the district’s excessive colleges has college students enrolled in entrepreneurship lessons. She stated there are at present 92 CTE applications being supplied in Volusia County Colleges.
Balgobin additionally praised the help from native entrepreneurs who helped the occasion occur.
“Now we have 31 judges from our group,” Balgobin stated. “They’re elected officers or they’re enterprise companions with us. So there will probably be dialog between our group and the scholars, as a result of they’re our future work drive.”
‘Stepping stones’ towards the primary objective
The 4 finest displays from every room, plus an additional spot, have been chosen for the ultimate spherical of displays for the winner’s choice.
Marli Schalkham of Burns Sci-Tech Excessive Faculty gained the judges’ vote along with her concept for an app referred to as “Clear Minds,” which would supply psychological help to youngsters fighting psychological well being points.
Autumn Demarest, a 15-year-old pupil from Mainland Excessive Faculty in Daytona Seaside, offered an concept for an app, referred to as “Insta Work,” which might supply highschool college students a web based area to share their data and recommendation on schoolwork with one another.
“If you happen to actually wish to be an entrepreneur and to be in enterprise, you must be keen to be open to different folks’s views,” Demarest stated.
Demarest stated getting suggestions from the judges was particularly useful, as a result of “they’re individuals who have performed enterprise and run companies.”
Jonathan Williams, who got here up with a haircut service referred to as “Evol Cutz,” which might concentrate on offering fast haircuts to male shoppers, stated occasions like these are “stepping stones” towards the ultimate objective of making a enterprise.
“I wasn’t actually trying ahead to really successful, I simply wished the expertise,” stated Williams, who’s a senior at Mainland Excessive Faculty. “Now that I’ve the data, I can take it and run with it.”
