Students Place in Top Three of RISK Competition

Congratulations to Sana Goyal ’25, Claudia Kim ’25 and Georgia Jane Whamond ’25, who placed in the top three of The Research and Innovation for Student Knowledge (RISK) competition. RISK is a high school entrepreneurship and business leadership program established by high school students to promote entrepreneurial and leadership skills among peers.

 

In collaboration with Drexel University's Close School of Entrepreneurship, RISK hosted a free high school pitch competition on April 1. The focus of the competition was the effective verbal presentation of an idea, with the top 3 pitches receiving a cash prize of $1,000.

 

Sana, Claudia and Georgia Jane’s pitch was for a product called Saliscan, which is a testing system meant to measure levels of tooth-decay-causing bacteria in the mouth. This product provides users greater insight into their oral hygiene, helping those without the financial means or ability to visit the dentist receive a newly nuanced and accessible assessment of their oral health. 

 

During the course of the event, participants received a competition rubric to know how they would be judged, pre-competition coaching from Drexel's entrepreneurship students and the opportunity to put their idea on display during the competition. The idea of the pitch competition was for the students to come up with an idea for an entrepreneurial business venture and present it using a PowerPoint slideshow in front of their peers and a panel of judges. There was no specific category of business that they needed to present and they were free to explore their creative side and present anything they believed would be a viable idea.

 

Students were judged based on a few different categories such as their problem statement, their solution statement, monetization strategy, managerial strategy and their overall presentation. 

 

RISK operates with the goal of helping high school students to become innovative thinkers, entrepreneurs and leaders by providing them an opportunity to research, create and enhance their organizational and communication skills. Students learn from renowned industry leaders, investors and successful entrepreneurs through a series of podcasts discussing various topics in business.