Miller Place students excel at trade show and business plan competition

Thirty-nine students in Thomas Frank’s Virtual Enterprise class at Miller Place High School excelled at the Long Island Regional Trade Show and Business Plan Competition.

Students were tasked with either setting up a business to sell their products at a trade show or pitching a business idea to angel investors.

“Our Virtual Enterprise students did an amazing job and were part of a very successful field trip,” Superintendent of Schools Seth Lipshie said. “Everyone who participated represented Miller Place with pride and enthusiasm and exceptional skill.”

He added, “Congratulations to all of the students who participated at the trade show for the professionalism and passion they demonstrated while promoting their ideas to investors.”

The Deja VR business, set up by student CEO Gianna Benavides, is a virtual reality company that sells headsets with a wide variety of games, sports, music, history and travel options. Gianna’s company took home the silver trophy in the website competition.

Website creator for Deja VR, Salome Davoudiasl, commented, “the company I am a part of made it entertaining to choose an electric color palette for the website. Once the simple mechanics of our website were evaluated, it became an awesome project to work on throughout the course of the school year.”

Deja VR, which earned $150,000 at the trade show, placed among the top 10 schools on Long Island in the competition, including 3,000 schools across Nassau,

Fourteen Albert G. Prodell Middle School students were selected to perform in the Intermediate Long Island String Festival on Jan. 22 at Northport High School.

Working under the musical leadership of Fred Volz, they are sixth graders

Sonny Alessi, Natasha Azmoun, Eve Calvert, Alexis Cordano, Hazel Cresser, Gianna Horsford, Linda Hu, Zachary Lister and Brynne Shinnick; seventh graders

Kai Hidaka and Aiden Weng; and eighth graders Michael Ceschini, Spencer Lee and

Timothy Worthington. The talented students were selected along with others from across Suffolk County on a competitive basis, with New York State School Music Association scores as the main criteria, along with teacher recommendations.

Suffolk County, and New York City.

The Sand N’ Shade business, established by student CEO Alexandra DeAmario, sells customized sunglasses, snow goggles, watches and hats. Sand N’ Shade set a school record by selling over $170,000 in merchandise at the trade show.

For more information about the Miller Place School District, please visit the district’s website at www.millerplace.k12.ny.us.