Local High School Students Compete in Junior Achievement of New York´s First-Ever Business Plan Competition

NEW YORK, May. 20 /PRNewswire/ --

NEW YORK, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Yesterday, Monday, May 19, aspiring student entrepreneurs from six New York City area high schools competed in a city-wide final competition of the first Junior Achievement of New York (JANY) Business Plan Competition sponsored by G.C. Andersen Partners LLC. The event took place at Columbia Business School from 10am-3pm. The competition was designed to engage students in entrepreneurial thinking and cultivate their interest in business entrepreneurialism as a successful path to economic and social empowerment.

Six student finalist teams pitched innovative business plans to a prestigious panel of business experts and entrepreneurs. Plans were judged using criteria to measure the merit and strength of the idea, the innovation and feasibility of the plan and the strength of each team's presentation. G. Chris Andersen, JANY Board Member/JA Alum and Founding Partner of G.C. Andersen Partners, LLC, provided the first and second place teams' post-secondary school scholarship awards.

Students from Brooklyn Tech HS were awarded the top prize for their innovative web platform myCollegeSTAT.com. HSBC corporate volunteers were the team advisors. myCollegeSTAT.com offers student users the benefit of learning how and what helps their peers gain entrance to a particular college. The goal of the Web site is to gather and archive user-generated intelligence that will help students manage the complexity of the college admissions process. Students from the winning Brooklyn Tech HS team, Awad Sayeed & Kyle Wong, Co-CEOs, Izra Izrailov, VP of Finance, Charles Naut, VP of Technology and Francesco Nuccio, VP of Marketing, are all seniors who plan to attend college in the fall. They intend to launch the site within a few months.

"Winning the business plan competition showed us that entrepreneurship and preparation is rewarded at any level. It has motivated us to take the next step as entrepreneurs and finally start our business. Hearing the feedback from the judges gave us new information that will help us in this process," said Kyle Wong. Each student winner received awards of $3,000 and a Rising Star of Enterprise trophy for their school.

Students from Baruch College Campus HS and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis HS shared second place honors with their business plan ideas for a voice recognition portable language translator device and a merging of fashion and technology with the H2 headset device, respectively. Each of the second place teams received Rising Stars of Enterprise trophies for their schools and each team member was awarded a $1,300 scholarship. PricewaterhouseCoopers corporate volunteers advised both teams.

"The JANY Business Plan Competition brings these remarkable students and their unique ideas together with dynamic business leaders. Through the generous support of our sponsor, G.C. Andersen Partners, the goal of this competition is to open up the minds of young people to their limitless potential by helping them dream bigger dreams," said Doug Schallau, president of Junior Achievement of New York.

Over an eight-week period, each school was partnered with corporate volunteer advisors from Citi, HSBC, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Drawing on their own experiences in the corporate world, the volunteers helped students develop business plans for an innovative product or service, including a company description, mission, marketing strategy and financial plan. An initial round of competition produced one team from each of the participating schools to compete in the final citywide competition.

"We're committed to making education relevant to young people. Our goal is to connect education, inspiration and ingenuity with opportunity and access in the business world to prepare young people to compete successfully in a global economy," said Chris Andersen.

Nearly three hundred students participated from Brooklyn Technical High School in Brooklyn, Long Island City High School in Astoria, and Graphic Communication Arts High School, The High School of Art & Design, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School and Baruch College Campus High School in Manhattan.

The panel of judges included G. Chris Andersen, Founding Partner, G.C. Andersen Partners, LLC; Tony Viscogliosi, Principal, Viscogliosi Bro., LLC; Tom Blum, Partner, G.C. Andersen Partners, LLC; Fred Nazem, Managing Partner, Nazem and Company; Sharon Joseph, President and CEO Harlem Lanes, Columbia University Business School Alum/JANY Alum and entrepreneur; and Michael Erlich, Professor of Finance at the School of Management, New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Clifford Schorer, Entrepreneur in Residence/Adjunct Professor for The Entrepreneurship Program -- Columbia Business School, commented, "The Junior Achievement Business Plan Competition is an example of entrepreneurialism in action. By providing young people with a forum to engage in real world business experiences, Junior Achievement is providing a greenhouse environment to nurture the next generation of business leaders and innovators."

JANY programs are designed to inspire young adults by creating educational opportunities for New York City students that are grounded in real world experiences. The business plan competition highlights the importance of entrepreneurial thinking as an important skill to develop innovative and creative solutions for solving everyday problems. Moreover, JANY's programs help prepare students to be successful in a global economy and promote entrepreneurship that creates jobs and wealth.

About Junior Achievement of New York, Inc.

Founded in 1929, Junior Achievement of New York, Inc. (JANY) is the New York affiliate of Junior Achievement Worldwide, the world's largest and fastest-growing organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Through a dedicated volunteer network, JANY provides in-school and after-school programs for students in grades K-12. JANY's educational programs focus on three key content areas -- The Three Pillars of Student Success: financial literacy, entrepreneurship and work readiness. Last academic year, JANY's in-school and after-school programs served nearly 100,000 students in the NYC and Long Island geographic area. Today, Junior Achievement Worldwide reaches approximately 8 million students globally. For more information, visit www.jany.org.

Junior Achievement Worldwide is a partner organization of the Kauffman Foundation. The Kauffman Foundation is working to further understand the phenomenon of entrepreneurship, to advance entrepreneurship education and training efforts, to promote entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and to better facilitate the commercialization of new technologies by entrepreneurs and others which have great promise for improving the economic welfare of our nation.

About G.C. Andersen Partners, LLC

G.C. Andersen Partners, LLC is a premier, New York City based boutique merchant bank that advises and invests in emerging growth and middle market companies, with a special emphasis on the alternative energy and clean tech sectors.

The firm was founded in 1996 by G. Chris Andersen, a former Vice Chairman of PaineWebber and a former head of the Investment Banking Group at Drexel Burnham Lambert. The six partners, five of whom were senior bankers at Drexel, have an average of over 25 years of investment banking and principal investing experience and have worked together extensively over their careers. During their careers, the partners and professionals, acting as both agents and principals, have consummated hundreds of transactions, representing over $100 billion in value.

In contrast to most boutique investment banks, the firm is structured as a merchant bank and can serve as both an advisor to and an investor in its clients. We take pride in and are recognized for developing creative solutions, providing unparalleled service and getting the difficult deals done.

Media Contact: Junior Achievement of New York, Inc. Jacqueline Dolly 212-907-0046 jdolly@jany.org