Rider University’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies is hosting its second annual NJ High School Business Concept Competition.
The entry deadline is Jan.11 and the Feb. 8th finals will take place on the Rider University campus in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The competition challenges high school students to create a business concept of their choosing and come up with a 400-word business description as part of their competition submission. It needs to identify the product or service associated with the business concept, the typical customer in need of this product or service and how the customer will be served or be satisfied.
The competition will yield 5 finalists chosen from the submissions who will present their concept live to a panel of judges.
Last year the winner was Elizabeth Christie of Bridgewater-Raritan High School with her idea for a spill-saver game tray, an innovative way to carry belongings at sports events. Christie’s product was a plastic tray with a concave hole for beverages, food dividers, a ticket holder and a plastic, zipper pocket for cell phones.
Other proposed business concepts included a smart phone app that lists wait times for popular places and an indoor skate park and shop in Cape May New Jersey.
This year the top 2 finalists will receive a 4-year, $1000 scholarship to study entrepreneurship at Rider’s College of Business Administration, as well as cash prizes of $1000 and $500, respectively. This year’s fourth and fifth place finalists will receive a 2-year, $500 scholarship for the same studying purpose.
All finalists will receive a plaque and the winner’s high school will receive a trophy.
The competition accepts applications from sophomores, juniors and seniors in NJ high schools with a 2.5 cumulative GPA and higher.
Rider’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies offers an undergraduate major, minor and concentration in entrepreneurial studies, a venture fund for CBA students, an advisory board for students to access guidance and an entrepreneurial studies club.
Rider is also home to the Small Business Institute (SBI), which gives students real world experience working with small organization CEOs to solve problems. Dr. Ronald Cook is the director of SBI and has supervised more than 200 consulting projects some of which have won national awards. He’s also published more than 30 scholarly articles that appear in major small business publications and he is the co-recipient of the 2011 Emerald Research grant given to those who conduct research in business librarianship.
For more information contact Kyle Anacker at anackerk@rider.edu or via phone at 609-895-5468 or Dr. Lee Zane at Izane@rider.edu or via phone at 609-895-5519
