On Thursday, April 11th, Mr. Rip took his Virtual Enterprise class to a business competition in ——. Two Sophomores, Miles Groh and Reid Ticknor won first place. Their other partner, Braeden Leftwich also won 3rd place.   

   “It was more competitive than Rosemont, but more relaxed because it was smaller,” said Braeden Leftwich, Sophomore.  

   The students had to create a business and pitch their ideas to the judges. This was done in groups. 

   “Our company was named Unify and made clothing and accessories made exclusively from recycled materials,” said Ticknor, “We wanted to make it affordable but high quality.”

   Leftwich’s job was to explain to the judges what they were going to do if they were to invest in Unify. 

   “It was cool to talk to the judges and about their own businesses too,” said Leftwich. 

   To participate in the competition, the students had to go up to three judges and pitch the idea and explain what their company was about. When asked about how it felt to win first and third place, they said it felt good since all of RPS (Rockford Public Schools) was there to see them do it. 

   “We met a ton of people from different schools. Everyone was in a different company so it was cool to ask them about their company,” said Ticknor.