R.I. Business Plan Competition adds high school track

PROVIDENCE – High school students will be invited to compete in the upcoming Rhode Island Business Plan Competition for the first time since the contest’s founding in 2000, the nonprofit announced today.
The competition already had a student track, for college graduate and undergraduate scholars; and an entrepreneur track, for non-students. For 2008, it will add a high school track, open to any student enrolled at an accredited high school in Rhode Island, including public, private, charter, religious and home schools.
“We decided to expand the competition to high schoolers, since more and more are getting the entrepreneurial bug,” Charles Kingdon, the competition’s co-chair and Brown University’s associate vice president of Brown technology partnerships, said in a statement today. “We’d love them to compete, and look forward to receiving their applications.”
The high-schoolers will vie for a top prize of $1,000. Another $150,000 will be divided among the winners and runners-up in the entrepreneur and student tracks.
Also today, the Business Plan Competition announced the addition of two new sponsors: the quasi-public Slater Technology Fund and The Mergis Group, the professional recruiting and managed services division of Spherion Corp.
“We’re delighted that the Slater Fund and The Mergis Group are supporting us,” said Garrett B. Hunter, the competition’s co-chair and president of the Business Development Company of Rhode Island. “They, along with the 31 other sponsors, are the reason we can hold the competition.”
Additional information on the 2008 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition – including contest rules and guidelines, application procedures and business-planning resources – is available at www.ri-bizplan.com.