133 Seventh & Eighth Grade Entrepreneurs Participate in INVENTURE Day

Loup City, NE – Entrepreneurship is crucial to the economic vitality of all communities. Research shows that educational programs focused on entrepreneurial skills are best developed at an early age and have spill-over effects to subsequent entrepreneurial knowledge and skill development in later years. The Nebraska Extension Y.E.B.O (Youth Entrepreneurship and Business Opportunities) Issue Team recognized the need for such educational programs and created a new program in 2016 called INVENTURE Day.  On October 26, 2017, Nebraska Extension in Central IV (Greeley, Howard, Sherman and Valley Counties) in partnership with Sherman County Economic Development, hosted INVENTURE Day for 133 area seventh and eighth grade students from Central Valley Public School, Litchfield Public School, Loup City Public School, Ord Public School and St. Paul Public School who gathered together at the Loup City Community Building to take on the INVENTURE Day experience. The experience featured innovation and creation as 27 teams of youth developed their own unique business ideas around a given widget (an unknown item). Teams moved through the INVENTURE factory stations completing challenges to help cultivate their business idea. At the end of the assembly line, the 27 teams pitched their idea to a panel of judges in the quick pitch competition. The top three teams from INVENTURE Day win a trip to Nebraska Innovation Campus where they will be able to continue their entrepreneurial adventures by designing products in the Innovation Campus Makers Space, working together with their team to further their business design, and have an opportunity to learn about the Engler Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Winning teams include, representing Central Valley Public School was Team #12 of Jace Beck, Carson Corman, Carly Johnson, Augustus Osantowski and Vanessa Wood with mentor Jeff Harrington; representing Loup City Public School was Team #9 of Dakota Gibson, Luke Heil, Landri Loos, Brandon Placzek and Jessica Stieb with mentor Kelly Griffith; and representing St. Paul Public School was Team #26 of Jace Green, Ava Hewitt, Matthew Lech, CJ Roth and Max Swanson with mentor Heather Sikyta. The Nebraska Innovation Campus experience is made possible through support from the Loup City Chamber of Commerce, St. Paul Development Corporation and Valley County Community Foundation. Nebraska Extension would like to give a huge thank you to Central Valley, Litchfield, Loup City, Ord, and St. Paul Public Schools and Sherman County Economic Development for helping to coordinate the event and giving all these students the opportunity to participate. Another thank you to the community mentors who provided each team with guidance and assistance throughout the experience as well as to the judges. Mentors included Karen Anderson, Corrie Badura, Steffan Baker, Melissa Dush, Kevin Golus, Kelly Griffith, Jeff Harrington, Deb Higgins, Kenny Kaslon, Eric Kowalski, Rose Kowalski, Jerome Lobner, Diane Loeffelbein, Chuck Radtke, Heather Sikyta, Jennifer Smydra and Deana Varney. Judges were Alec Baillie, Cindy Ericson, Dick Harrington, Cheri Kowalski, Shane Kuehl and Preston Petersen. INVENTURE Day would not have been the success it was without all the community support!