Student teams from Moanalua High School, Maui Waena Intermediate School and Waiakea Elementary School produced the best business plans to capture $25,000 first-place prizes for their schools in the inaugural Bank for Education KeikiCo Contest.
A three-student team from Moanalua Elementary School was the only school to receive prizes in two categories and collectively won $25,000 after getting $15,000 for being runner-up in the elementary division and $10,000 for the Best in the County award. In addition, Moanalua Elementary adviser Karen Miyamoto received an adviser award consisting of a $500 gift card to purchase needed items for her class and programs.
The event was sponsored by American Savings Bank, which awarded a total of $190,000 to 19 schools statewide. Announcements of some of the top awards were made at school assemblies Thursday, while other announcements were made earlier in the week.
The KeikiCo Contest provides an opportunity for Hawaii’s third- through 12th-grade students to earn prize money for their school by turning their ideas into business plans. Each team of two to four students came up with an innovative product or service and developed a business plan, accompanied by a video pitch. There were 160 teams that competed.
Each participating team was eligible for a chance to win cash prizes in one of five categories: first place, $25,000 per division (three winners); runner-up, $15,000 per division (three winners); county, $10,000 each (four winners); and people’s choice, $5,000 per division (three winners). Six schools also received special-mention prizes of $2,500 each. Videos were also judged on clarity, creativity and persuasiveness.
American Savings’ leadership team joined business leaders from media, business, venture capital, education and the legal field in judging the plans and selecting winners. Each business plan was judged based on five categories: innovation, feasibility, relevance, potential demand and comprehensiveness.
Winning for Moanalua High School (grades 9 through 12) was the OMG Moments team of Gina Watanabe, Jasmine Loo and Landon Mauricio, with Fred Ito and Kelly Calistro as advisers. Maui Waena Intermediate School (grades 6 through 8) was represented by the Breath Tracker team of Ethan Harris, Aukai Ahyat and George Frendo, with Jennifer Suzuku as adviser. Waiakea Elementary School (grades 3 through 5) was represented by the Mr. Chillz team of Rhys Wilson and Michael Nakano, with Sandra Taniguchi as adviser.
