STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (WXYZ) — High school students across two Utica Community Schools competed Thursday in a Shark Tank-style pitch competition designed to inspire the next great invention.
Watch Evan Sery's video report:
The final showdown of the eight-week contest took place at Stevenson High School, with students vying for a grand prize of $7,500 in cash.
The energy was electric inside Stevenson High School's auditorium as teams presented their innovative ideas to a panel of three judges, including Bedrock Senior Vice President Brandon Kaznowski.
"I was most surprised by the entrepreneurial spirit of these kids, it's amazing to see, I think the future is really bright," Kaznowski said.
The competition was organized by SparkLab, a new nonprofit founded by local Metro Detroit entrepreneurs. For co-founder Saif Siddiqui, the event marked a full-circle moment as he was once a student at Stevenson High School.
"I was not so great of a kid, probably considered a troubled child, nothing really related to me, myself, and my founders came to find out this is something our educational system really needed," Siddiqui said.
SparkLab is an immersive eight-week program designed to give high school students the opportunity to pitch their business ideas. The three finalists split a total cash prize of $15,000.
The winning team consisted of four high school girls from Henry Ford II High School who pitched an app called FitPick.
"Our pitch was an app that creates outfits around your aesthetic and what you like to wear; it brings inspo from other apps and influencers," said Roula Victor, a junior at Henry Ford II High School.
Kaznowski praised the winning concept for its practical application.
"A lot of the products were ancillary add-ons to something, and this seemed to solve a specific problem people had," Kaznowski said.
This was SparkLab's first contest, which began with 300 students. Next year, the nonprofit hopes to reach 5,000 high schoolers across Oakland County schools.
"We're hoping to take this nationwide and impact as many students as possible," Siddiqui said.
————————————————————
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
