Whiz Kids: South Brunswick High School Students Honored for Business Creativity

In this week's Whiz Kids, South Brunswick Patch is proud to recognize the accomplishments of thee high achieving students from South Brunswick High School.  The nominations were sent in by SBHS Business Education teachers Laura Dec and Ailish McGrath.  The students are being recognized for their performances in the NJ Business Idea Competition.

•  Nominator's Name:  Ailish McGrath and Laura Dec
• Whiz Kid's Names: Pooja Schroff (student of Ailish McGrath), Abha Chaudhary  (student of Laura Dec), Monica Joshi (student of Laura Dec)
• Whiz Kid's School: South Brunswick High School
• Whiz Kid's Accomplishment:  All students in Business For the 21st Century participated in the NJ Business Idea Competition hosted by The Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurship at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Over 650 students or teams of students in NJ submitted their ideas. Out of those 650, the top 36 ideas were selected to be finalist and semi-finalists. Three of those 36 students were from SBHS. We are very proud of their achievement. They were honored last week at a ceremony at Fairleigh Dickison University in Madison NJ.

• Pooja Schroff (individual entry)- Miss McGrath finalist $250 award.
• Abha Chaudhary & Monica Joshi (team entry) - Miss Dec semi finalist $100 award.
• Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness: These students are creative and embrace the idea of “thinking outside the box."

See below for the award winning idea from Pooja and the team of Abha and Monica.

Pooja Schroff

Business idea:

EasyApps is a quick and convenient resource available to high school students, which assists them with college applications and provides career guidance. There are several benefits of using EasyApps; first of all, one can explore various job opportunities by being exposed to professionals in the field of their interest, and will subsequently be able to find the perfect career. Additionally, students will have an access to virtual tours of all universities, and will be able to instantaneously find the school that fits the major they want to pursue. Perfect schools will be chosen by students initially filling out a questionnaire of their budget, interests, needs, and strengths. This questionnaire is designed to answer the questions that students consider when applying to colleges, and therefore it lifts the pressure of their shoulders and is done within seconds by EasyApps. In order to provide the best service, EasyApps information is updated daily, so the newest and most current information is available to students. Support will be available around the clock and will be accessible in various languages for the ease of access to students internationally. EasyApps has access to all university requirements, so one can find ideal education. This is so essential for students because instead of having to run around last minute trying to find information and requirements for each school, one can find every schools page at EasyApps, and will be given suggested courses, the ranking of the school, the pros and cons, and the advice of past/current students.

Competitors:

One major competitor of EasyApps is Naviance, another college assister that will help students figure out their futures; however, this resource does not contain as many resources as EasyApps. Naviance does not have the same level of career guidance as EasyApps and does not have as good of a support system. EasyApps employees will be online 24/7 so that it is convenient for students everywhere. The plan that we create for each student is incomparable because here we take all of your personal interests and goals and try to make it work so that school will be challenging, but will allow time to pursue extracurricular goals and to strive for excellence in being a scholar, a leader, and a well-rounded individual. 

Customers:

High School students are the target for Easy Apps. Our service provides students and parents with a streamlined method of achieving excellence. Students will have an easily accessible account which their parents will also be able to view and edit. Also, students will have the ability to fill out the questionnaire alongside their parents, so that EasyApps can accordingly make a four year plan for the student. EasyApps will essentially make the lives of high school students much less onerous and demanding, and will subsequently allow students to focus on their more immediate goals rather than focusing on long term goals and college requirements.

Society Overall:

EasyApps will lift the burden on many families because after students realize that applying to college is not as hard as it seems, more students will go to college, and our world can become more efficient if there are more educated individuals; the economy will progress as a result of this. In America especially, the percentage of students in lower socio-economic statuses that go to college is lower because these families tend to be overwhelmed with the process of applying to colleges. Unwittingly, these families are harming the future of themselves and their children. These individuals choose the wrong path and as a result are not able to fulfill their potential. With EasyApps, more students will have an opportunity at success.

Goals:

Here at EasyApps, the main goal is to increase the number of students attending college, and reduce the stress on students by making the process of applying to colleges less intricate. Moreover, we want to help those in lower socio-economic statuses by making this service cost less these families who want to achieve a better future. We are determined to help the future generation, and we realize the amount of pressure that is pressed upon high school students, and the constant worry of not being able to get into the right college. While taking all of these factors into account, EasyApps hopes to lighten the load on these students, and to truncate the amount of time students have to spend searching for the right college.

Monica Joshi and Abha Chaudhary

NJ Business Competition

IDEA TITLE- Connecting Constellations: Helping Every Child get Under the Same Wing.

THE IDEA- We would like to give credit to Mark Zuckerberg for creating the social network, facebook.  Our idea was somewhat based on his network but still different in many ways.  It is a network which helps with education.  It gives students the freedom to pick and choose a topic to study and learn. 

It will further help them in their studies in school and allow them to do well on tests.  In addition, it allows them to study with friends for time convenience, for there is a chat option while they watch online tutor videos in whichever subject they lack in. There are tutors for almost every subject, including honors, A.P., and world languages.  It is a great way to enhance your skills. 

Also, for each school there is a link on the homepage on this network.  Within the schools link, there will be a place where each teacher can have their own home page where teachers can update students on their homework, activities, tests, quizzes, etc. To add to this, this network has parental access so they will be able to see the improvement and progress of their child.  The first month on the network is free of charge so you can experience and judge if this is right for you.  If you are interested in it and appreciate it then to go further you have to subscribe to it for $5 a month. 

CUSTOMERS- Our customers would be the teachers and the students of grades 3-12. This will allow all students to be inter-connected with their peers. The teachers will be able to watch their students, for progress, as well as the student’s parents. They will be able to subscribe to this network, for a very minimum price, and we guarantee their satisfaction.

COMPETITORS- For competitors, we really do not have another network, to compete with based on our service and in the same field. However, according to the idea of social network, our competitors would be facebook, twitter, tumbler, and MySpace.  Although we have the social option like our competition, we hold an educational purpose.

SOCIETY OVERALL- Our network would help the society because unlike the other social networks, our network includes education.  Therefore, instead of students coming home and turning on the computer for a world of socializing, they would open to a world filled with achievements and opportunities.  This will help the teachers because they can trust our online tutors to help their students if they can’t get to all of them on time.  This will help the parents because they know that their child is using their time wisely and is actually learning something through a “hands on” way.  Lastly, this primarily helps the students because instead of just socializing with your friends and not being able to keep up with grades, they can learn something interactively. 

 GOALS- Our goals are to help students realize their potential and surpass their expectations.  We also hope that through this network children will interact more and focus more on grades then just socializing.  We hope to make all schools, starting with the United States, to subscribe to this network and lead us one step closer, as a whole, to a better education.  Hopefully, this will help students achieve much more in life and leave them with a happy and successful life.  This will make numerous schools around the world come together to make the five fingers of the world combine into a fist that will help every child into the same wing.

South Brunswick Patch is seeking suggestions from readers for individual kids, youth groups, teens and even sports teams that wow us with their accomplishments. We want to hear about these amazing children and teens and select one each week as the Patch Whiz Kid. Submit your nomination in our comment box below or e-mail the information to davy.james@patch.com. Be sure to include all of the following information:

▪                Nominator's Name

▪                Nominator's E-Mail

▪                Whiz Kid's Name

▪                Whiz Kid's Age

▪                Whiz Kid's School

▪                Whiz Kid's Accomplishment

▪                Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness (what made him/her successful?)

▪                A high-resolution JPG photo of your Whiz Kid

Questions? E-mail South Brunswick Patch Editor Davy James at davy.james@patch.com.