Somerset College Inaugural Celebration of Entrepreneurship

Somerset College has just hosted the inaugural Somerset Celebration of Entrepreneurship. In its first year, the Celebration of Entrepreneurship has provided Somerset College students and members of the wider community with the opportunity to meet and be inspired by Queensland’s best and brightest entrepreneurs.

Key speakers included Steve Baxter from Shark Tank, and Mark Sowerby, the Queensland Government’s Chief Entrepreneur. However, the highlight of the Festival, was Orange Sky, who celebrated their third birthday with an orange poppy seed cake with us during their presentation.

Sally Leslie, President of the Somerset Alumni Association had this to say about the Middle Years Pitch Competition:

"All of the Middle Years students involved were so engaged in the process and maintained their motivation throughout the competition. I was particularly impressed by the level of cooperation and collaboration that I witnessed between Alumni and our students. There were some students who find concentrating for a one hour lesson difficult, so to see them engaged and working for an entire day with a shared purpose was magical."

A parent of the College had this to say about the Festival:

"Just a quick email to let you know how fantastic I thought the Celebration of Entrepreneurship was over the past two days. Students were involved on so many levels and I love how you have combined it with the Year 10 [and new Year 6] business studies assessment tasks. Everyone walked around with a smile and it was really busy at all times! It is so good for the students to have these real business experiences - retail, pitching and realising their ideas in the market place outside of school. I’ll be really interested to see the profits made for the students and the idea that won the pitching comp and to see how well that goes."

Throughout the Festival, there were also several competitions. The winners of these competitions are as follows:

Senior Years Bond University Pitch Competition: Katisha Webb, Lilly Thompson, Montana MacFarland. These girls will now work with Blue Lens Group to start their School business using the 000 seed capital kindly donated by the Somerset Alumni Association. Interestingly, since the Pitch Night, the College has been contacted by an investor who wishes to work with the group called Wonderkid consisting of Kyle Moffat, Nihal Bains, Cooper Jones and Riley Cameron.

• Somerset Alumni Middle Years Pitch Competition: Eden Dovrat – Year 7, Eliza Young – Year 7, Jayde McKinnon – Year 7, Mackenzie Cadman – Year 7. These students wish to create a new comfort pillow. These students will now work with members of the Somerset Alumni Association to start their business using the 000 seed capital kindly donated by the Alumni Association.
• Film Competition - Jessica Lekich. Jessica will now work with Bond University to produce the film she pitched at the Festival.
• Film Advertisement Competition - Blake Mills.