Five teams of MSMS students competed against each other in the school’s third annual Business Plan Competition. The contest, held on Thursday, Feb. 20 in Nissan Auditorium, featured presentations of teams’ conceptual businesses and awarded cash prizes to the winners.

Each team pitched their ideas to three Columbus business experts with a time limit of ten minutes. Students, teachers and parents alike came to support those who presented. Dr. Kayla Hester, the creator of MSMS’s Economics curriculum as well as the Business plan competition, MC’ed the event. She previously assisted the teams in developing their plans through months of research and revisions from September to the contest.

The first place prize was $3,000 dollars, second place won $1,500 and third place received $750.

Niamke Buchanan, Russ Thompson and Cameron Thomas placed third with their business called Learning in Style, a textbook and education reform company that pushes to appeal to students of varying learning styles..

Placing second, Henry Sanders, Aaron Wan and Skylar Nguyen presented a business called GroundUP. GroundUP is an idea for a children’s museum in New York that teaches children about protecting the environment in an environmentally-conscious setting.

Michael Lu and Esmond Tang won the competition with a business called Aether Equa, which offered an internet service that helped businesses by helping with outreach and protecting from viruses and other internet-related issues.

Lu, a member of the winning team, expressed that the experience he gained from the event was beneficial and educational, and he felt that his competitors did a great job with their presentations as well.

“The business plan competition is a wonderful experience to get students to learn about the process of creating a successful business, and I had a lot of fun learning all about artificial intelligence and its opportunity in our market,” Lu said. “Winning was actually a huge surprise because the other presentations from other groups were really impressive.”

Sanders, whose team placed second, was nervous to present, but he was proud that the efforts of his team had such a positive response.

“Finally presenting the final pitch in front of the whole school overwhelmed me for sure,” Sanders said. “But I knew that the months of work we all put into the business wouldn’t have gone to waste.”

Kate Hall, a junior who participated in the Business Plan Competition, was pleased with her team’s presentation and the hard work they dedicated to the competition.

“My group came up with the business idea for Genesis Creations, which is a 3D printing medical device business,” Hall said. “Every person in our group worked hard to make the business plan the way it is. We’ve been working very hard on this since August, and I like the way ours turned out.”