The city of Snellville sponsors a local Shark Tank
- Gretchen Grey
- Apr 18
- 3 min read
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of witnessing three schools join each other as fourteen student entrepreneurs presented their business concepts to a group of local business owners at Snellville City Hall.
Each year, The city of Snellville sponsors a local Shark Tank competition designed to inspire and encourage students studying business and entrepreneurship as part of their high school elective program. Funds donated by the group of Shark Tank Judges are intended to help students grow their businesses.
Each student chooses an area and a dollar amount that they feel would best help their business grow, and then with the support of their teacher, they are required to build a PowerPoint presentation and present their concept to the team in hopes their idea will receive the funding they are in quest of. Yesterday's group had a variety of inspiring students with businesses ranging from organic lipgloss to healthy pet treats. Each student I spoke with was excited and eager to see their business reach another level of success. Many of them were also nervously looking forward to the growth that would come from presenting to the panel of judges. I was encouraged to see the level of professionalism from this group of students, many in suits, all professionally dressed, clearly invested in the outcome of all their hard work.
I was delighted to speak with Dean Jackson, the Head of business education at Brookwood High School. Not only was he a fantastic person with an incredible story of personal and professional mastery, but it was also clear that Mr. Jackson is fully committed to the program and his students. Having spent over 30 years in the Tech industry, Mr. Jackson was just shy of two years into his first retirement when he realized that his career was not over, and he began to explore a dream of teaching that had laid dormant in his heart for years. As he began to knock on doors, opportunities began to flood his way. Before he knew it, he was Head of the Business Education department for Brookwood High School and mentoring the future entrepreneurs of our country. As a retired Navy vet who has been married to his wife for forty-two years and has three grown children, I am so grateful to have a man like Mr. Jackson in the position he is in, seeing each of these kids coming out of the presentation room next to their mentor watching him praise and encourage each student on their performance was pretty powerful. As the presentations ended, the panel reviewed each business before deciding who would be awarded the funding they requested.
Out of the two thousand dollars donated by the local business owners, six students received funding, and those who did not were encouraged to return the next year and try again. Even those who were disappointed celebrated the success of those who had won, knowing that highs and lows are all part of the process in the journey of entrepreneurship. I discovered yesterday that the Brookwood education cluster is one of the few in Gwinnett County that teaches entrepreneurship from elementary to high school. Yesterday's event was once again a testimony to how blessed we are to live here in Gwinnett as we experience all the investments made into the community and the families here.
I look forward to seeing each of these students as they eventually move on to become pillars of this community in the future.
We would like to thank Archadeck of Lawrenceville for sponsoring this post. And making it possible for us to deliver valuable content to our readers.
תגובות