Social Entrepreneurship Organization Hosts “Shark Tank” Competition

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Dylan Higbie, Contributing Writer

This semester the Social Entrepreneurship Student Organization (SESO) will be holding a “pitch” competition for students at Valencia College.

The contest, dubbed “SharkTank” after the television reality series, will involve teams of students developing solutions that will help fulfill one of the United Nations sustainable development goals. Teams will create and present a pitch based on the solutions they have come up with.

Students will join teams of three or four members, and over the course of the next two months participate in at least two coaching labs and a practice session to prepare for the contest that will occur at the end of March. Coaching labs will be held when the club meets on Tuesdays between 1-2 pm in Building 4 room 205.

“I would like the student to come knowing nothing, and then after the competition say I did something, I have an idea. Even if I don’t win- I win, I have a new network. I have new ideas,” expressed SESO president Ons Boukhdhir.

Students who plan on joining the competition said that they believe that it would help strengthen skills relevant to their future careers. “I feel like it will be a good skill builder for me personally, I haven’t been in too many competitions relevant to business you know, they’ve always been other things,” stated student Asher Horne, who is majoring in business.

“I’d like to learn more about leadership, entrepreneurship and all of these things because I am an IT major so I didn’t get used to speaking in public, doing speeches, so this competition will be challenging in that,” said student Chaima ElBehi Essefi.

The Social Entrepreneurship club hopes to provide those who participate with prizes such as gift cards. For the team that places first, they hope to send the winners to a five-day social entrepreneurship conference in Boston. They also hope to provide one of the participants with a working space to bring their pitch solution to fruition.