Girls from 10 Fort Worth area schools came together today, with nutrition leaders, business experts and special guests to take part in a unique workshop designed to help them think and act like entrepreneurs. {{more:[Read more]}}One of the schools represented was Kennedale Junior High. represented by students Hannah Malone, Julia McHugh, Trinity Tran, Lilly Rychlik, and Hannah Biles. The five members of Team Kennedale designed and pitch their idea and was awarded one of 12 grants. It wasn’t easy and the competition was tough.
As part of the Dannon
Institute Girls 4 Tomorrow event, powered by Adventure Capital, these aspiring students pitched their health and wellness ideas to a panel of judges for the opportunity to win funding to implement their projects in their school.
The students were provided with a corporate mentor from the Dannon Corporation and received leadership training during the 5+ hour workshop. Then, the students entered a competition where teams made, developed, and refined proposals with their mentors to improve health and wellness at their schools.
In all, 30 teams entered the “pitch” competition. Twelve teams were selected and the group of entrepreneurs from KJHS was one of them. Team Kennedale was awarded $1,500 for their project idea.
Their idea was called “Gardening for the Future” and was pitched by Julia McHugh. The project will help create an organic garden at the school. Grant funding will be used to purchase seeds and gardening tools. Excess food from the garden and school lunches will be composted to fertilize the garden or be provided to local BackPack Project. The project will also focus on teaching students where their food comes from and the nutritional value of that food. Students will get physical activity by working in the garden.
As an added challenge to Team Kennedale, they had to make their pitch against high school teams. There were only 2 junior high schools represented in the competition.
The Dannon Institute Girls 4 Tomorrow event, powered by Adventure Capital (AdCapYOUth.org), is a two-city pilot program, with a second event to be hosted in New York City on March 15th. The Girls 4 Tomorrow event is presented in partnership with leading health and wellness nonprofit, GENYOUth to empower and support girls from high needs schools and give them opportunities to foster change in their local schools and communities through GENYOUth’s AdVenture Capital program. Since its launch, the AdVenture Capital program has supported hundreds of students who received funding to implement their ideas in schools across the country.
