Congratulations to JA's Trust Your Crazy Ideas Winning Team, Plenty Pockets!
“Your ideas are worth standing up for and if you want to do something do not let anyone take that opportunity away from you” - Caroline Brady, 2023 Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge participant and student at Mount Carmel Academy
The Greater New Orleans Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge “Big Pitch” was held March 31st as part of New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW). Caroline Brady and Vivian Vazquez from Mount Carmel Academy pitched Plenty Pockets, a product that can be ironed onto the inside of women’s pockets to greatly expand the size of the pockets, earning them the top local prize of $5,000 in scholarships, free Chick-fil-A for a year, and $2,500 for their school. This year’s winning team represents Greater New Orleans in the State competition this Friday, April 28th at Loyola University New Orleans, pitching alongside the Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge finalists from Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and North Louisiana. The State Champion will receive $10,000 in scholarships and $5,000 for their school.
Junior Achievement wishes to thank NOEW for hosting the “Big Pitch,” and our volunteer judges, William Wolf, Partner, Polychain Capital; Blake Stanfill, Principal, Okwata Group; and Justin Wohlstadter, Founder & CEO, Waldo.fyi. These judges challenged the young competitors with incisive questions a capital investor would want answered, ultimately showcasing to the audience that this cohort of young entrepreneurs were prepared and confident in their products’ ability to solve a problem. From creating a tray, the Strawbath, that attaches to commercial dishwashers and allows restaurants to replace plastic straws with reusable metal straws to protecting students from gun violence with the Flip and Hide, a convertible desk with a Kevlar wrap, these innovative youth demonstrated that the months of developing their creative solutions through critical thinking, market analysis, and financial planning in JA’s weekly workshop provided these young entrepreneurs with skills that will carry them toward success in whatever career path they choose.
A special thank you to the Brees Dream Foundation, Chick-fil-A, MaxHome, and Capital One for sponsoring this year’s Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge program and to our volunteer mentors who worked with the students in the weekly workshops.
