This year we marked the fifth year of the already traditional Burch Start Me Up competition for high school students on the topic of entrepreneurship, in cooperation with the Association of High School Students in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This competition was launched in 2018 by International Burch University to help high school students develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
Entrepreneurship and start-up companies have become a part of our everyday lives, providing us with a new perspective, view, and direction for the future. We wanted to give high school students the opportunity to use their imagination, think outside the box, and work on real-world problems through this competition. Burch Start Me Up High School provides high school students with the opportunity to take the first step into the world of entrepreneurship, the first step toward making their ideas a reality and creating their start-up companies. The path of an entrepreneur, like any other, has its ups and downs, but with support and mentorship, any high school student with the desire to become an entrepreneur can achieve their goal.
This year's competition included numerous changes, modifications, and an improved concept. We gamified the concept this year to adapt the entire competition to the hybrid type while making the activities and missions as interesting as possible for our participants. We created activities and missions as well as a platform based on the game.
Participants in the Burch Start Me Up competition came from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the first module began with 108 participants from 32 different local communities, eventually resulting in 17 teams competing in the second module. Seven teams were given the opportunity to participate in the third module, and at the end of the third module, we got the 3 best teams:
- MetaFour
- ROOMie
- Soft Robotics
These three teams as well as the teams "What now?" and "Out-out" will have the opportunity to present their ideas at DEMO Day 2022!
One of our participants and finalists, Jovana Rodić from Teslić, stated the following: “I am a person who has not been in entrepreneurship so far, but the Burch Start Me Up High School competition attracted me, so I decided to apply. All three modules were filled with hard work, both mine and the work of other teams. The third module indeed left the best impression because we got the opportunity to network live with other talented young people across BiH and share our experiences with them so far. The lectures are fun and interactive, and the lecturers give critiques that helped us perfect our ideas. This is an experience that helped me find myself in a new sphere, meet interesting people and have fun. I would recommend everyone to apply next year. "
Ismar Ajkunić, PR of the Association of High School Students in Bosnia and Herzegovina, points out: "I am very glad to see high school students and their first entrepreneurial steps, here at" Start Me Up High School ", just like mine. concept, which we gamified for our participants, and I am very glad that I finally saw the concrete results of this concept. I am happy to see all high school students who were very motivated, full of energy, and interested in working and translating their ideas from imagination to reality. I am impressed with all the ideas of our teams and their development from the first module until today. High school students are not quiet and they took the first steps and came into play with us and made the first steps of their entrepreneurial and innovative ideas! "
We are grateful to our Lean Start Up Croatia partners, members of the Organizing Team, jury members, and everyone who helped make this year's event a success.
Stay with us and join us in the game and adventure of your entrepreneurial and innovative ideas' first steps! Until next time...
