Woodrow senior impresses investors

By Taylor Mayad

The University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT Dallas) hosted a pitch competition July 18 similar to “Shark Tank” featuring 11 Dallas ISD high school students vying for cash, a trip to New York City and the opportunity to impress investors during a national contest later this year.

The group of juniors and seniors currently attend six Dallas ISD schools — Adamson High School, Wilmer Hutchins High School, Woodrow Wilson High School, H. Grady Spruce High School, Bryan Adams High School and Seagoville High School — and have been attending a “STEM BizCamp” this month sponsored by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship held at UNT Dallas.

The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) STEM BizCamp at UNT Dallas is a four-week experience where students deepen their entrepreneurial mindset while refining their business models, developing their products or services, and mastering marketing and management skills.

Of the 14 Dallas ISD high school students chosen to participate in the camp, 11 competed in Thursday’s event, learning to create a pitch deck and a detailed financial plan with the option to create a minimally viable product. 

The winner was Mars Ratliff, 16, a junior at Woodrow Wilson High School. Her proposed business, Interio Interiors, features an app designed to help young and aspiring interior designers find customers and build their client base.

Ratliff will receive a $300 prize and a free trip to New York City in October, where she will compete in a national pitch competition among winners of other NFTE regions. They will appear before judges and investors who will be invited to provide capital to expand the students’ businesses and possibly take a stake in them.

Alexa Muzquiz, a student at Bryan Adams High School Leadership Academy, and Jayliyah Fortenberry, a student at W. H. Adamson High School, were the second- and third-place finishers, respectively. Muzquiz’s business, Alexas Flower Bouquets, is already up and running online, selling real roses and imitation roses made of ribbons. She will receive $200. Fortenberry’s proposed business, called Glash, would create and sell special glue for false eyelashes, with natural ingredients and no chemicals. She will receive $100.

All participants in the NFTE STEM BizCamp earn certifications and badges, including a Design for Delight certification and Googleand Shopify badges that showcase their skills and credentials.

The camp’s benefits include guidance from industry business advisors. Students practice their entrepreneurial mindset through interactions with volunteer Investment pitch advisors and judges drawn from NFTE’s network of successful founders and businesspeople. Volunteers host weekly field trips to entrepreneurial organizations in the region.

NFTE is a global education nonprofit that empowers partners to integrate entrepreneurial education across curricula and equips youth in under-resourced communities with the skills, connections, credentials, and real-world experiences needed to lead change and own their futures. Since 1987, NFTE has reached more than a million learners worldwide.