Friday, April 30, 2021

Once again, young innovators, teachers, judges and coaches came together for the annual Chancellor’s High School Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and YEPex Youth Summit.

The competition, hosted by the university in partnership with Chancellor Jose V. Sartarelli and the UNCW Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, challenges students to work with like-minded thinkers to develop creative solutions to solve real-world problems while building knowledge of entrepreneurship with a focus on lean startup.

YEPex launched in 2019 as a monthly meetup for 9th-12th graders to connect with local entrepreneurs and learn what it takes to start a business. The experience culminates with the youth summit in the spring.

The 2021 winners were announced April 30 after the top teams in the “Social Enterprise” and “For-Profit Enterprise” tracks pitched their business idea in front of a panel of judges during the youth summit, held via Zoom.

The winners in the Social Enterprise track are:
1^st Place: Lynks, Timothy Shibley, Ian Condon and Kemp Leonard (Hoggard High School)
2^nd Place: Chess for a Greater Wilmington, Joseph Politi (Cape Fear Academy)
3^rd Place: Gaming IRL, Alisha Fariz and Justin Guo (Isaac Bear Early College)

The winners in the For-Profit Enterprise track are:
1^st Place: SBAgent, Zealia Svecharnik (Hoggard High School)
2^nd Place: Hone.AI, Ella King (Isaac Bear Early College)
3^rd Place: Xtra Fit Virtual Personal Training, Nicole Coursey (Topsail High School)

Winning teams receive a cash prize, trophy, a one-year membership to the UNCW CIE and a copy of The Lean Entrepreneur by Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits.

-- Caroline Cropp

#CIE
#CHANCELLOR