In the News

Some Barrington High School entrepreneurship students have learned how to deal with business curveballs that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead of an affair in Barrington High's auditorium where the finalists typically pitch their startup companies in a setting similar to ABC's "Shark Tank," this year's business incubator winners were announced in a Zoom teleconference Thursday. Three of the five finalists received a combined $20,500 in investments from private sources.

After a start-up company created by a group of Barrington High School students was put on hold due to the coronavirus epidemic, the teens behind the project decided to get creative and find a way to give back.

We will soon get to a time - if we are not already there - when we talk about life pre-pandemic and post-pandemic. I had initially planned to publish this interview last month, pre-pandemic. Then my focus, along with the rest of the world, shifted. I began to write about the impact of COVID-19 on schools, higher education institutions and businesses. The time didn’t feel right for this story.

But as the impact of the pandemic sinks in - both the devastating loss of life and of jobs along with growing anxiety over the future of work and the economy - the themes of this interview struck me as especially timely, as we consider what the pandemic means for students preparing for an uncertain future.

A device to extend a school desk and an app to help busy professionals get dressed in the morning are two of five projects under development by students in the McHenry High School INCubatoredu program.

Teams present their product to judges during their minimum viable product (MVP) pitch day on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020, held at the INCubatoredu building in downtown Rochester.

As economic developers seeking to diversify our local economy, we know that growing our own talent is a reliable way of generating both workers and new businesses. That’s why part of our multi-year strategy at the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corp. (EDC) includes a focus on fostering a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem...Starting next school year, the School District of Manatee County will pilot an ambitious entrepreneurial program at two high schools...

The students, Daliso Chitulangoma, Noah Decker and Ethan Kleven, call themselves team "FürDogs." On Wednesday, the trio pitched their toy concept "Shark Tank"-style before a board of advisers, seeking funding to test their product. 

INCubatoredu Alum and U of I student, Mona Fang:  "It was something I saw that wasn't done right and I just thought, there has to be a new solution out there," she says.

In its third year, students, teachers and volunteer mentors at Vista Ridge High School, Leander ISD, Texas, share experiences with the INCubatoredu and ACCELeratoredu student entrepreneurship programs.

The INCubatoredu class consists of four teams with a wide range of startup business ideas. Each team has developed a focused experiment to test their riskiest business assumptions. These experiments are called Minimum Viable Product, or MVP, Tests.