GlassRoots Hosts Annual Business Plan Competition

Newark-area students present their designs, products and plans in competition and trade fair
 
Roger Tucker (Tucker Contemporary Art), Mark Megaro (Newark Public Schools), Sonnet Takahisa (Newark Museum), Chike Uzoka (Entrepreneur and Business Coach), Steve Prato (JoeTea) and Michael Kasdan (Wiggin and Dana) to choose winning business plan and design.

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NEWARK, NJ--Greater Newark high school students who have spent the last academic year creating their own glass art and an accompanying business plan for marketing and selling their one-of-a-kind pieces will showcase their work at GlassRoots’ 13th Annual Business Plan Competition and Trade Fair on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 4:00 pm in the newly renovated Hahne & Co Building, Upper Atrium, 50 Halsey Street, Newark NJ.  The public is invited to attend. GlassRoots is a non-profit organization located in the downtown arts district of Newark, New Jersey that provides artistic and life skills training to Newark area youth, ages 10 to 18, by engaging them in the creation of glass art and the development of business and entrepreneurship skills. 
 
The GlassRoots FLAME and Business & Entrepreneurship Programs, dedicated to nurturing and guiding the entrepreneurial spirit, are modeled after the curriculum from the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, an international non-profit organization that introduces youth to the world of entrepreneurship. High School students from the Greater Newark area begin their journeys as entrepreneurs during 65 hours of class time focusing on how to plan, prepare, market and manage a business. In the Business and Entrepreneurship program, they then create products in one of GlassRoots’ glass art studios. The FLAME Program students take a slightly different path, working cooperatively to design and create products to represent GlassRoots, and their competition will be based on designs and business models. Both programs culminate in this business competition and trade fair at which the students’ products can be purchased. 
 
“Entrepreneurship education benefits students from all socioeconomic backgrounds because it teaches kids to think outside the box and nurtures unconventional talents and skills,” said Barbara Heisler, Executive Director. “Through our entrepreneurship programs, our students learn organizational skills, including time management, leadership development and interpersonal skills, which prepares them for additional education and give them an edge with highly transferable skills sought by employers.”
The student entrepreneurs this year hail from Newark and Hoboken Schools. 
 
The Competition is the culmination of the time and effort that these students have dedicated over the last nine months.  Judges for this year’s competition include:

• Roger Tucker a GlassRoots board member and owner of Tucker Contemporary Art in Montclair
• Mark Megaro, Art Faculty, Barringer High School in Newark  
• Sonnet Takahisa, Deputy Director of Education, Newark Museum
• Steven Prato, Founder, Joe Tea, Montclair  
• Michael Kasdan, Partner, Wiggin and Dana LLC, New York
• Chike Uzoka, Entrepreneur and Business Coach, Newark

 
The Business and Entrepreuneurship Program, one of several run by GlassRoots, is supported, in part, by the Bob Crewe Foundation, PSE&G Foundation, New Jersey Office of Faith Based Initiatives, New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Sherr Foundation.