Manchester Teams Win 1st, 3rd At OCC Entrepreneurs' Competition

MANCHESTER, NJ — Manchester Township students took home two of the top three awards at an Ocean County-wide entrepreneurial competition at Ocean County College.

The Ocean County College Sink or Swim Competition, which was held in late April, is modeled after the "Shark Tank" program and is hosted through the School of Business at Ocean County College.

Manchester's students took first place and third place out of more than 30 teams that submitted business plans for new products or services to the competition, according to Manchester business teacher Nick Salvemini, who advised the students.

The initial entries were narrowed down to the top 10 by a group of judges consisting of faculty and Ocean/Kean student members of the Entrepreneurial Club.

Those 10 were presented to another panel of judges by the teams, who chose one student from their team to give the business presentation in the style of a one-minute elevator pitch to the second set of judges, which included prominent members of the Ocean County community.

In addition to Hawks' teams taking first and third place, Manchester's Emilia Wrazen was named Best Presenter, an award that comes with a special scholarship, according to Ocean County College.

The team of Gabrielle Ashton and Ava Bullis took first place and the title of "High School Entrepreneurial Team of the Year." In third place was the team of David Giambatista, Isabella Munday and Shay Juralewicz, Salvemini said.

The competition was judged by Jim Mahlmann, managing director at Net Cetra; Michael Forcella, OCC manager of business engagement, continuing/professional education; Lori Pepenella, CEO of the Southern Ocean Chamber of Commerce; and Katie Calabrese, director of memberships and projects, NACCE.

The Sink or Swim Competition is hosted by the Business Innovation Consortium (BIC), an umbrella organization of OCC Business Clubs, including the Entrepreneurs Club, the HRTM Club, the Legal Club, and FBLA-PBL (Future Business Leaders of America).

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