Mission
Our mission is to empower high school students to develop innovative business ideas that have a positive impact on society and the community. Through this competition, we aim to provide a platform for aspiring next-generation entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas, build friendship with peers, and foster soft skills and business mindset.
Objective
The objective of the 2024 competition is to encourage youth to be innovative, entrepreneurial, and improve their soft skills such as leadership, teamwork, time management, communication, and critical thinking.
2024 Timeline
05/01–08/31 Registration
09/01 Deadline to submit
10/05 Final Presentation
10/09 Winners Announcement
Golden, Silver, Bronze and Social Impact Award
11/16 Awards ceremony
COMPETITION RULES
1. Applicants
High School Students (International students are also welcome).
2. Team
Each team can have no more than 5 members. Team members may be comprised from more than one school.
3. Must be original work
To be considered, plagiarism is prohibited.
A registration fee of $80 is charged per participant for this competition.
Success stories
Sophia Li (2023 Silver Award)
Hi,guys, I’m Sophia, and I’m here to share my experiences along my entrepreneurial and civic engagement journey.
To start, I’ve always known I was interested in business. From a young age, I was inspired by women in business such as Susan Wojcicki, Ginni Rometty, and more. Business, and more specifically economics, was a fascinating subject for me. I self studied on my own in elementary and middle school, but when I entered high school, I decided to join my school’s DECA club.
As for civic engagement, this field has always been on my mind since day one. I routinely watch the news and try to stay updated with current events. Unfortunately, news is not always good news. There are complexities and injustice within the communities I live in, and as an Asian-American woman with immigrant parents, it is painful for me to see the struggles and hardships my community goes through. Civic engagement is extremely important to me, as a way to speak up and fight for the people around me.
1. Encouragement word 2. Watch her story
Anmo Li (2022 Gold Award)
Participating in this competition was a transforming experience for me. Not only did it provide a platform for me to showcase my business ideas, but it also gave me the opportunity to learn from entrepreneurs and experts in the field. I gained valuable skills in market research, financial analysis, and pitching my ideas to experts. The thorough feedback I received from the judges was invaluable in helping me refine my business plan.
The event itself was well-organized and provided a great networking opportunity.
To any future participants, I would advise you to focus on your own unique perspective and to be confident in your own idea. It's important to do careful research, but ultimately, it's the passion and vision behind the idea that will make it stand out!
I look forward to seeing the event continue to grow and support aspiring entrepreneurs.
Richard Zhu (2021 Gold Award)
My name is Richard, and I’m currently a rising junior at Richard Montgomery High School. So as a past Golden award winner of the 2021 Asian American Entrepreneurship and innovation contest, I am so happy to see how long away Yuan Foundation has come through in order to reach this point, and I am also so happy to see all of the participants that are looking forward to participate in the future contests. Our project in 2021 was called “Project Raven”. It’s basically an online platform dedicated to helping Asian American elderly adults who suffer from the loneliness and the pain that as result of the COVID -19 2020. So if you’re isolated and feel lonely, our “Project Raven” provides an online platform to make them (elderly) feel connected. Some give always that I want to share to you guys personally from this Project Raven. How much this relevant to me, because this is my first ever business plan, and this is my first touch with anything related to business, so this eventually provoked my interest to go and purse the business major in college, hopefully. And this is really something meaningful to me, like something life-changing. My advice will be, even though you’re not going to- you’re not 100% sure that you might go into something business related, your future career, go and try this out. This is going to be a fabulous experience for you and this will definitely be benefit to every single participant, so I really look forward to your amazing business plan and your amazing ideas that will contribute to society, and make a lot of money. Alright, thank you guys so much!
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Zechang (Charlie) Yang (2021 Gold Award)
Hey, everyone, my name is Charlie Yang. I am a senior at Bullis School in Potomac MD. This is my first time to participate a business plan competition, and I had a great experience. I learned that no matter what ideas you have, you can always give a try in a competition like this. Here, you would be able to come up with your own business plan, present it to the judges, and receive a feedback advice for potentially improvement. Personally, through this competition, I learned how to write and present a business plan, and more importantly to always be opening minded. Some competitors are perfect for collaboration. Don’t always assume that everything in the business world is all about competition, cooperation is a better choice. Thank you and I wish you all good luck in the upcoming competition.
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Evelyn Shue (2021 Silver Award)
Evelyn is a rising senior at Richard Montgomery High School. She is passionate about public health, journalism, and education. In her free time, she likes to draw, listen to music, and play with her cat.