The Inspiration.

We are hosting two incredible keynote speakers, Haile Thomas and Justin Lafazan.  

 

Thomas, 16, is a Jamaican-American youth health activist, motivational speaker, teen vegan chef and the youngest certified health coach trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Thomas founded HAPPY, an organization to fight conditions like diabetes and childhood obesity, and has impacted more than 7,000 youth in four years.

Lafazan, 20, is an experienced entrepreneur, consultant, speaker and best-selling author. He is curator of Next Gen Summit, the premier community for millennial entrepreneurs, and author of What Wakes You Up?, the inspiration for this year’s conference theme.

You won’t want to miss these two discuss their startup experiences!

The Education.

We have a bunch of incredible workshops lined up throughout the summit.  

University of Delaware Entrepreneurship and Innovation Major Zack Jones is leading a thought-provoking workshop called The Rise of Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin.  Spark your creativity and ideation with leadership expert Tony Middlebrooks, who will run a workshop called Give Your Creativity a Kick in the Seat of the Pants. Go beyond the wor
ld of business and learn Meditation and Mindfulness in a workshop led by Sally Miller. These are just a few of the handful of learning opportunities throughout the day.  

The Motivation.

It’s inevitable when you put a bunch of creatives and entrepreneurs in one room. The energy at the Youth Entrepreneurship Summit is unmatched. YES! is a time where you can learn from experts in the innovation space. Take a look at how students felt leaving YES! 2016. If you’re looking to walk away from this event feeling motivated, connected, and ready to take action, look no further.

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About Horn Entrepreneurship

Horn Entrepreneurship serves as the University of Delaware’s creative engine for entrepreneurship education and advancement. Built and actively supported by successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders, Horn Entrepreneurship empowers aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs as they pursue new ideas for a better world.

Follow Horn Entrepreneurship @udhorn and check out our entrepreneurship competition for high school students @diamondchalleng.

Moldova

 

Diamond Challenge Moldova held its semifinal round on Saturday, January 28, at the Dreamups Innovation Campus. Teams pitched their ideas for both the Social Venture and Business Concept tracks.  The winning Business Concept team was SafeYard, consisting of team members Diana Ceaicovschi, Maria Kaciurovskaya, Victoria Pavalachi and Chiril Nikitin.  The Social Venture track winners were Eugeniu Cuznetov and Diana-Valeria Vacaru, with their concept, Candles for Moldova.

 

Congratulations to the team winners, and thank you to all of the volunteers and staff that made the event a huge success.  We are looking forward to seeing the winning teams in Delaware for the final round at the Youth Entrepreneurship Summit on April 7.  

 

A video of the entire event can be seen here. 

 

Georgia

SoapTopia took home the prize at the Diamond Challenge Georgia 2017 Semifinal Competition! The SoapTopia team consists of Team captain Levan Jaliashvili, and team members Nia Kerelashvili and Lana Elbakidze. They are guided and mentored by their advisor, Mariam Nozazde, who they met at the 2016 Diamond Challenge. The team is now the first ever Georgian soap company.  As they advance to the final rounds, the team’s friendship is growing, along with the many business opportunities to come!  The SoapTopia team will travel to Delaware to compete in the final round at the Youth Entrepreneurship Summit.

Ukraine

The Ukraine Semifinal Competition was hosted by the Institute of Civil Education and Public Programs, with the support of the embassy in Kiev, Ukraine.  The event was held at HUB 4.0, where students presented their ideas in front of a panel of judges.  Thank you to all who worked to make the Diamond Challenge Ukraine event successful!

Congratulations to the winning team, called Crutchcatcher. The team is from Mariupol, Ukraine. We’re so excited to have them in Delaware in April!

Stay tuned for more Diamond Challenge Semifinal updates soon!

We are excited to announce the semifinalist teams for this year’s Business Concept and Social Venture Virtual Tracks! These teams are invited travel to the University of Delaware to pitch in this year’s semifinal round on April 6. With hundreds of students from all over the world submitting so many incredible ideas, this year’s competition was indeed fierce! That said, we are excited to announce our top teams, in alphabetical order:

 

BUSINESS CONCEPT:

AcoustiGLASS (Ohio, U.S.A)

Convertible Shoe (Texas, U.S.A.)

Plasticycle (Georgia, U.S.A.)

Potentia: Fuel your Fire (Pune, India)

Recup (Ottawa, Canada)

 

SOCIAL VENTURE*:

CommunityLinks (New York, U.S.A.)

Dilishakel (Diligan, Armenia)

DonArt (Diligan, Armenia)

STEP  (Muang, Thailand)

TeensGive.org (New York, U.S.A.)

Volutu (California, U.S.A)

 

We want to thank all of our incredible students, advisors, and youth entrepreneurial community for your participation in this year’s virtual round! We hope to see you at the Youth Entrepreneurship Summit, whether in-person of via our livestream!

*We had a tie between two teams in Social Venture so we invited six instead of the usual five!

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About Horn Entrepreneurship

Horn Entrepreneurship serves as the University of Delaware’s creative engine for entrepreneurship education and advancement. Built and actively supported by successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders, Horn Entrepreneurship empowers aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs as they pursue new ideas for a better world.

Follow Horn Entrepreneurship @udhorn and check out our entrepreneurship competition for high school students @diamondchalleng.