Making a Difference
An Idea Challenge Sparks Innovation & Entrepreneurship
A team of our incredibly talented and skilled students had an opportunity to compete in the 2022 DifferenceMaker® High School Idea Challenge on November 30th at the UMass Lowell campus. The annual event is an opportunity for teams of high school students to collaborate in problem-solving, innovation, and entrepreneurship and compete by pitching their creative solutions to a panel of judges.
Our Distributive Clubs of America (DECA) Officers Laney Beahn of Douglas, Sara Lewis of Bellingham, Grace Mathieu of Uxbridge, Ava Mills of Grafton, and Chloe Vescio of Douglas were proud to be the all-female team of Engineering & Robotics students representing BVT. They pitched Medimate, a sanitizing device that kills bacteria from shoes.
"The concept of Medimate came about last year," explained Grace. "I competed in Career Pathways Showcase for Engineering with my partners, who have since graduated. Our product idea was inspired by my mother’s work in the medical field. She was on the front lines during the pandemic, and when they ran out of disposable shoe covers, she would leave her shoes in the garage after work. My parents had given me a toothbrush sanitizer, and I began to wonder if that same sanitizing concept could work on shoes. So we continued building off that idea, which is how we created this product."
"As Engineering students, we watched Grace and her team engineer, design, and compete in SkillsUSA with this product," said Sara. "While we were very familiar with Medimate from the engineering perspective, competing in the DifferenceMaker® High School Idea Challenge allowed us to explore an entirely new aspect of product development, the business aspect with a budget plan and the sales side."
"While we each had delegated parts of our presentation, we worked cohesively in pitching Medimate to the judges, which showcased our teamwork," said Chloe.
"The presentations occurred in front of the other teams pitching products," said Ava. "It was nerve-wracking watching the other pitches and wondering how we compared. However, we were impressed by the team that earned a well-deserved first place. They had a working prototype, a pattern for their product, and a registered domain and are on the path to making their product available to consumers."
"We were excited to compete against other high school students with impressive business plans, and we are proud to take second place and win $300. But we did a good job following the criteria given to us by DECA," said Laney. "We were the only vocational-technical high school in this competition, which gave us an advantage in the product development stage."
"It was a great competitive event and a positive experience for our students," said DECA Advisor Beth Grimes. "The DifferenceMaker® event is also offered at UMass Lowell at the collegiate level. I’m proud of how confident these students are becoming by participating in DECA."
"DECA has been a positive experience," said Chloe. The officers agreed and would like to encourage their classmates to learn more about DECA and the business world by joining DECA.