Prizes totaling as much as $15,000 are up for grabs in the Wisconsin High School Business Model Competition at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Saturday, May 21—but the application deadline is fast approaching.
Applications for the competition, sponsored by the Alta Resources Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, are due by Sunday, April 10.
The competition calls for students, individually or in teams of up to three members, to present business ideas to help hone their entrepreneurial skills. It is open to all Wisconsin high-school sophomores, juniors and seniors.
Existing business ventures are eligible if their lifetime revenue and/or investment total is less than $10,000. But organizers stress that all that’s needed to compete is a business idea.
The first round of competition will take place online and will involve the submission of an application form. Up to 24 teams will advance to the finals in May at UW-Oshkosh.
Finalists will have four minutes to pitch their ideas, followed by a two-minute question-and-answer session with judges drawn from a variety of backgrounds.
Scholarships of $8,000, $5,000, and $2,000 are at stake for the top three finishers if those students decide to attend UW-Oshkosh. For those who choose not to attend UW-Oshkosh, the top three finishers will receive cash prizes of $3,000, $1,500 and $500, respectively.
The competition’s organizers say it arms high-school students with valuable presentation and communication skills outside the classroom and prepares them to compete in collegiate competition.
