Delaware high school freshman wins $2500 business plan competition

Drew Martin, a Newark, Del. high school freshman, won  the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)‘s Regional Youth Business Plan Competition, beating out nine other student startups with his custom stained glass company “Glass Roots.”

Martin, who was named Ernst & Young’s Student Entrepreneur of the Year because of his placement in the business plan competition, won $1,500 from NFTE and $1,000 from Ernst & Young. The event was held at Quorum at the University City Science Center.

This October, Martin will compete in the national business plan competition finals in New York City, representing Philadelphia, along with second place winner Valerie Nieves, a senior at Hunting Park’s Esperanza Academy Charter School whose business was an online dressing room called V-Shop. Nieves won $1,000 from NFTE.

Third place went to LaShea Lamb, a senior at Center City South’s World Communications Charter School. Lamb’s business was SunIt, a  solar-powered phone case that would protect a phone and charge it at the same time.

NFTE is a national youth entrepreneurship organization that has had a Philly branch since 2007, and the business plan competition is the year-end culmination of students’ work. Read more about the 10 semi-finalists here.