A team of five area high school students won $2,500 and took first place at the 2018 Teen Entrepreneur Summer Academy (TESA) Final Showcase June 22 for their idea for a Smart View app that would show how certain areas of downtown Grand Rapids would look in the future.
The summer camp, hosted by the Richard M. and Helen DeVos Center for Entrepreneurship in the Seidman College of Business, took place June 19-23 and was sponsored by Amway. This year's theme was Smart Cities.
About 45 high school students from 24 schools across West Michigan spent the week learning about how to create a startup company. The teen academy, designed for students in grades 9-12, includes interactive lectures, team-building activities, hands-on research, field trips and networking with local entrepreneurs.
On the final day of camp, students pitched their ideas to a panel of local business professionals for a chance to win prizes totaling $5,000.
The second-place group won $1,500 for their idea for a Smart Teen Center in Grand Rapids that would offer technology-based activities and a place where teenagers could connect. The third-place group won $1,000 for their idea for Smart Panels: sound absorbing panels that could be used for billboards or on schools or apartments to reduce sound pollution.
For more information about TESA, contact the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at [email protected] or (616) 331-7582.
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