AACC has teamed up with Capital One and the Radcliffe Entrepreneurial Studies Scholarship to give students an opportunity to participate in a Business Pitch Competition worth $100,000.

To qualify for the competition, a student has to submit an online application, a 10-page maximum business proposal, a resume and a financial plan for no more than $25,000 by noon on March 30.

Any AACC student who has taken classes since July 2016 may compete.

Before students can apply, they have to meet with a Capital One coach, a business adviser or an AACC mentor before March 24 to go over their business plans.

The finalists will be notified through email on April 13. On April 27, they will pitch their ideas, in two-minute segments without the use of technology, live in front of eight judges and an audience, and will answer a five-minute Q&A in Careers Center 200. The winners will be announced that day.

“It is a great opportunity for students to create their ideas into realities, to involve all colleges into one competition,” Stephanie Goldenberg, project manager of the competition, said. “If a culinary arts student wants to own a restaurant or if an art student wants to own their own gallery, this is their chance to make their dream a reality.”
The Entrepreneurial Studies Institute started the business competition back in 2004.

After seeing different college business competitions, AACC took information from each of the schools and added it to its own idea.

“I am thinking about starting my own art gallery with local art from [AACC] students,” Tyler Ashton, a third-year art student, said. “If I do enter the competition then I would use the seed money to rent out a local space.”