Fifteen teams competed in this years 2023 Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (YEC) held at Pike Valley High School on March 6, 2023. Teams from Republic County and Pike Valley Schools competed for $1,750 in prizes through a written executive summary, elevator pitch presentation, tradeshow display.
Thanks to Principal Mike Gritten and Mrs. Julia Hancock, the Pike Valley 6th grade class had an amazing showing with eight teams participating and fifteen students. Bentley Melby, presented a seasoning business called Bentley’s Best and won a $50 Young Promise award given by A Little Hometown Shirt in Courtland. The Cowgirl Cookies team consisting of Elise Lieb, Lucy Calkins, and Lanee Bray also won a $50 Young Promise award, this one from JenRus Freelance from Courtland. Also competing from 6th grade were PVAP-Emberlyn Simon, AT Jewelry-Tianna Reeves & Autumn Shelton, Western – Paige Garst & Trinity Sugars, HAKX– Max Douglas, Reed Kohmetscher, & Hutch Hammer, Kansas Girl Popcorn– Landry Nylund, and Games Galore-Ren Langston & Sam Johnson. These 6th grade students were an incredible group of young entrepreneurs!
The top winner for the night was from Republic County High School, Coal Creek Outfitters, a guided hunting service. Lily Havel, Macy Homeier, and Trey Melton were the $750 winning team members with advisor Jed Strnad. This team receives the automatic bid to the Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge in Manhattan and can apply before March 20th. Coal Creek Outfitters additionally was chosen as the top marketing award by the tradeshow judges and will receive a $100 award from NexGen Round-Up for Youth.
The second-place winners, also from Republic County High School, consisted of Olivia Strnad and Sarah Miller. Their business, RC Drone Photography, received the second-highest combined scores from the written summary, verbal presentation, and tradeshow judges scores. This team was award a $500 prize. Republic County Ag Teacher, Jed Strnad, sponsored this team.
Third place in this year’s competition went to second-year YEC business, The Chopping Block. Owen Russell won $250 for his wood working business concept. He is an 8th grader at Pike Valley Jr./Sr. High School.
The final award winner for the night went to the business Further a baseball training business from Pike Valley 7th grader, Peter Newman. Newman won a $50 Young Promise award from Network Kansas.
Other participating junior high and high school businesses were EzTech- Ezra Benne, Pike Valley 8th grader and WildCard Creations-Erica Lieb, Pike Valley Freshman.
All participants are eligible to try for one of the fifteen wild card spots at the Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge at Kansas State University. A video talking about the business executive summary and a written plan needs to be submitted on the Venture Dash platform by March 20th.
As in past years, the competition also had an art component with art teachers Savannah Awalt (Pike Valley) and Tranda Strnad (Republic County) having their students feature different agriculture entrepreneurs and subjects in this year’s work. The public was able to view these pieces as they perused the tradeshow booths.
“Thank you to all of the students who stepped out of their comfort zone and put in the work to participate in the Republic County YEC. I feel that our competition is one of the strongest in the State and that is because of our wonderful students and community,” stated Jenny Russell, Republic County Economic Development Director. RCED would also like to thank the students, teachers, custodians, our seven YEC judges, parents, and the community for their help in putting on another successful YEC.