Uploaded on May 27th, 2018
In April, we held our first inaugural interschool competition — Challenger. Teams from a range of schools across NSW including Knox Grammar, Hornsby Girls High School, and Chatswood High School, battled it out to be the best by working closely with mentors to build business solutions to real-world problems. The winning team shares with us their experience as well as the lessons that they learned.
Students watching pitches!
Introduce your team, your idea.
“We are SustAim from Chatswood High, our members include Catherine Yen, Bagavathy Menon, Rujul Chaudhari, Marcelo Gonzalez Danke and Gaby Wong. Our idea was to create a product that provided the necessary reusable environmentally friendly alternatives to single use plastic items to make it easier to live a sustainable lifestyle.”
Why did you choose to apply for Challenger?
“Two of us had already competed in Initiate 48, and wanted another chance to gain some more experience. It was held at our school, and as all of us wanted to do something productive in the holidays so we knew that we had to apply for Challenger. We were all keen to learn more about entrepreneurship and the behind-the-scenes of a start-up and learn some important skills and make valuable connections throughout the event.”
What was the most rewarding part of the experience?
“The most rewarding part of the experience would probably have to be winning after 3 days of hustling and uncertainty. It made all the stress, early mornings and late nights worth it. It gave us validation that we were onto something good, and that all the hard work we did finally paid off.”
Working together with advice from William Wang (mentor).
What skills have you learned and how are you planning to apply them in everyday life?
“Challenger tested our communication and organisation skills greatly; we are planning to apply them through working in groups and juggling extra-curriculars with, what we find, an already busy year. We learned so much, but most importantly, how to make our dreams a reality. This experience has provided us with the knowledge and skills to execute.”
Have any perceptions changed as a result of participating?
“As a result of participating, we met many inspirational people along the way such as Lily Wu who taught us not to limit ourselves even though we are still young; she was proof that anything is possible and that there is so much we could do even now still in high school.”
Winning team photo.
What do you envision your future to be?
“Many of us would like to venture into entrepreneurship/business and this experience has given us the confidence to pursue our journeys further. We want to better the world and whether that be through entrepreneurship or something else, we aspire to create change.”
Any further comments?
“We are really grateful for this opportunity as it allows for us to have a taste of what might become our future jobs; it has taught us more than anything at school could.”
