PITCH PERFECT What do you get when you combine design thinking, tenacity, resiliency, and agile problem-solving with the pursuit of innovation in the name of social change and global good? For a group of enterprising CA students, an eye-opening and award-winning foray into one of the most prestigious youth entrepreneurship challenges in the world: the international Conrad Challenge.
Last fall, rising seniors Sarah George, Ritvik Nalamothu, and Clay Thornton approached the Center for Community Engagement with a big idea to support budding entrepreneurs. Their goal? To launch a club that nurtured student innovation and business acumen by facilitating participation in global entrepreneurship challenges. A natural extension of CA’s existing Entrepreneurship Initiative, the students’ proposed Startup Challenge Club earned a quick approval, with Entrepreneurship Coordinator and English teacher Palmer Seeley signing on as faculty mentor. The nascent club would go on to attract an intrepid group of 18 Upper School students
who immediately set their sights on the prestigious international Conrad Challenge as their target competition. While ambitions and excitement were high, as first-time competitors entering alongside a field of over 300 teams the world over, many seasoned veterans, no one was quite certain what to expect for CA’s inaugural teams. But, after a tumultuous year of trial and error, ups and downs, and virtual pivots, a fantastic display of CA ingenuity and collaboration brought impressive results: one finalist team and one alternate finalist team, one welldeserved award, one patent pending, three student-led burgeoning businesses, and countless lessons learned.
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The Magazine of Cary Academy
Nine
