Students vie for entrepreneurship prize

A six-student team of entrepreneurs-in-the-making will compete Friday at a global competition in Atlanta to decide who has the best business plan.

The students make up Team Selene and are part of the TiE South Coast Young Entrepreneurs program, designed for high school students interested in finding mentorships with professional entrepreneurs. They will meet up in Georgia with other teams from around the world who will each pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges.

The young entrepreneurs program stems from TiE, a global nonprofit focused on connecting entrepreneurs for mentoring, networking and funding.

Team Selene is part of the South Coast Chapter of the young entrepreneurs program, TYE, which includes students from Orange and San Diego counties.

The team consists of students Pooja Nitturkar from Woodbridge High School in Irvine, Conner Brase from Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo and Riley O’Connell, Katelyn Desa and Cameron Prohaska from Huntington Beach High School. The high schoolers from ninth to 12th grade receive guidance from Kirsten Mangers, CEO of Chicklabs LLC in Orange.

The team took first place in two rounds of TYE South Coast Chapter competitions — the first held on May 16 at Chapman University and the second May 30 in San Diego. Teams at both events were required to pitch a business plan to the tournament’s judges.

Their first place win at the first round of competition earned them a $2,500 prize.

Team Selene members pitched their subscription box service, which would ship feminine hygiene products to women in the U.S. and also women in third world countries who may not have access to those items. They will pitch the idea at the Global Competition.

Their wins at both tournaments qualified them for the Global Competition, where they will compete against 20 teams from around the world for the $10,000 first-place prize.