EAST GREENWICH, R.I.–With sponsorship from Rhode Island’s credit unions, the Lt. Governor’s Entrepreneurship Challenge held its final round of competition Saturday over the weekend at the New England Technical Institute.
Five scholarships, totaling $9,000 were awarded, with each finalist grabbing a portion of the prize money based on the result of his or her presentation performance as judged by a three-person panel of Millennial business owners.
The initiative, which is a business pitch competition that encourages entrepreneurial-minded high school students to compete for thousands of dollars in post-secondary scholarships, is being led by Rhode Island Lt. Governor Dan McKee and is being co-sponsored by Millennial RI.
The Rhode Island program is modeled on the Kentucky Lt. Governor’s Entrepreneurship Challenge.
According to the Providence Business News, the credit union association distributed the $9,000 through Millennial RI, a young professionals group.
According to the Cooperative Credit Union Association, the top prize of $4,000 was captured by Sree Dasari of La Salle Academy for her business presentation on a virtual reality public speaking training company called, Vadati.
Other finalists receiving a scholarship check included Zara Salem, Teo Milner, Brooke Nyman, and Noah Werbel of Moses Brown for Food from Friends; Kerrie Larson of Mount Hope High School for KL Consulting; Malitey Mullings of The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center for Loop & Knot; and Max Swanson, Nathan Watts and Ryan Watts of Ponaganset High School for Swanson Capital, the Cooperative CU Association said.