The Lake Washington School District held its first-ever Teen CEO Business Competition on March 15 in Redmond and four Kirkland-area seniors were honored.
Second place was awarded to BitTrust co-owners and International Community School seniors, Dylan Steele and Anwell Wang. The school is located in Kirkland. They received a cash award of $1,000. BitTrust is a website where users can write reviews and give ratings for stores that accept digital money or “bits.” The goal is to help the public to see which vendors are trustworthy and which ones are scams.
Juanita High School senior Joe Buhl was given an award for being “Most Inspirational” for his business, Joe’s Dog Service. He received a cash award of $200. He walks between two and 12 dogs per week to the dog park where he lets them play off leash.
Josh Guempel and Saleh Hasnawi each were given honorable mentions and won $200 to be used to further develop their business, as well. Guempel crated Boat Waxing and Cleaning, while Hasnawi created Team I Fix It.
The purpose of the Teen CEO business competition is to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their entrepreneurial skills, think creatively, problem-solve, work collaboratively, assume personal responsibility, exhibit a strong work ethic, display resiliency, create a strong business plan and become involved in their local community.
Eleven students participated in Teen CEO. To be eligible students needed to have an existing business. Each project team was able to present to a team of judges that included Roger Blier, CEO, Passport Unlimited; Walt Krueger, partner, Krueger Beck, PLLC; Shannon Jurdana, president and CEO, Benefit Solutions, Inc.; and Charlotte Clary and Bev Vines-Haines, founders of Ice Chips Candy (as seen on ABC’s television show, “Shark Tank”).
The Teen CEO event would not have been possible without local businesses and individuals donating cash awards. These businesses and individuals include: Passport Unlimited, Benefit Solutions, Human Point, Krueger Beck PLLC, Livengood, Fitzgerald and Alskog, One Eighty, Shinstrom and Norman, Ice Chips Candy, Smead, Scott Becker, Sally Otten, Tom Neir and Shannon Jurdana. The Kirkland Kiwanis is the fiscal agent for Teen CEO. Reign Labs created the Teen CEO website.
