The Kansas City, Kan., high school student was one of 10 finalists in
the second annual JumpStart Kansas competition at McPherson College.
Following the final pitch presentations on Feb. 13 (which just happened
to also be her birthday) Onstott found out she was one of two grand
prize winners, along with Brandon Mackie of Coffeyville, Kan.
"The most important thing was getting my passion across,Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable crystalmosaic supplies and accessories!" Onstott said. "I have a solution to a very real problem."
The
annual Jump Start Kansas competition - created and hosted by McPherson
College - awards as the top prizes two grants of $5,000 to the two
Kansas high school students who present the best entrepreneurial ideas.
One grant is for the area of commercial entrepreneurship and one is for
social entrepreneurship.A collection of natural parkingsystem
offering polished or tumbled finishes and a choice of sizes. What's
more, the grants come with no stipulation that the high school students
attend McPherson College.
The grand prize winners are also
offered a $5,000 annual scholarship to MC. The other eight finalists are
offered a $1,Researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science
and Technology have developed an polishedtiles.000 annual scholarship to MC, which is increased to $1,Gecko could kickstart an lasermarker
mobile app explosion.500 annually if they also pursue the
Transformative Entrepreneurship Minor when they attend the college. In
addition, these students can receive $500 for their idea from the
college's micro-grant "Horizon Fund" if they attend.
In total,
McPherson College puts more than $100,000 on the line every year just to
encourage the development of young entrepreneurs.
Onstott won
the grand prize in the commercial category. She started her five-minute
presentation by explaining plainly how uncomfortable she was - and not
just because she was pitching for $5,000 with a speech she'd been up to 2
a.m. writing. It was also because of the clothes she was wearing.
Onstott
went on to explain that standard bras are made based on only two
standard measurements - cup and band - and all mass-produced bras assume
symmetry. But that's only true for 10 percent of bra customers, she
said, and the other 90 percent of these women are left either resorting
to a poor, uncomfortable fit or spending hundreds of dollars on a custom
bra.
Her solution was "Build a Better Bra Boutique." The
general concept is similar to the "Build-A-Bear Workshop" business,
except instead of customizing a Teddy bear, Onstott's customers would
use a computerized system to order a bra to exact specifications.
Trained employees would help measure and guide customers through the
process.
"This is something that is close to my own heart and something I've been struggling with," Onstott said.
The
grant will help her learn more about the process of bra-making and help
her begin setting up essential aspects of her business.
In the social entrepreneurship category,We can supply solarlight
products as below. Brandon Mackie came away with the grand prize grant
with his concept for an inspirational game called "Highway to Heaven."
The playing board is reminiscent of the game "Operation," where players
try to pull out plastic body parts from a cartoon picture of a surgery
patient without touching the sides and making a buzzer go off.
But
rather than competition, Mackie's game is directed toward spiritual
discovery within Christianity, healing sadness and depression, and
teaching lessons of love. With a prototype, he showed how the players
begin by trying to pull out a "broken heart" object at the beginning,
then move along a pathway removing Christian symbols. The "highway"
concludes with a "healed heart" and then a cross symbol. When players
touch the edges and trigger the buzzer, they draw a card with
inspirational quotes or Biblical scripture and the turn moves to the
next player.
He proposed a radically different design for a wind
turbine to create electricity. Rather than the wind directly turning a
turbine blade, it uses a scientific property of fluids and gases called
"The Bernoulli Principle." This design uses the wind's energy to pull
air from the ground up, turning a turbine along the way. His design is
safer for wildlife, has fewer moving parts, has no maximum operable wind
speed and would be easier to maintain with a generator at ground level.
-Jordyn Lipe, Hutchinson, Kan. - The Joyful Bakery. Lipe has
been baking since she could walk, and in more recent days has won prizes
and developed loyal customers. Baking is her passion. Already selling
her goods by word-of-mouth and a small web presence, she would like to
expand the business.
"My dream is to secure a location for my bakery and really get it going," she said.
As she looks for that location, she wants to create a welcoming, calm and comforting atmosphere.
"My purpose in being before you today is to do my best to change the world," she said.
She just might have secured some new fans at the competition, as she offered a taste of her cupcakes to the judging panel.
-Eric
Unruh, Galva, Kan. - Hydrogen Fuel Technology. Unruh would like to work
out of his father's mechanic shop to convert gasoline-powered cars to
also run on liquid hydrogen, providing a clean alternative to fossil
fuels.
"About any vehicle that runs on gas can be made to run on hydrogen," he said.
Along
with the conversion, he would also sell small generators to fit in a
garage to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen, providing the fuel for
the cars.
没有评论:
发表评论