Comptroller Holding Contest for Business Students

On April 17, over 200 business students from 13 Nassau high schools will be participating in the first “Comptroller’s Entrepreneurial High School Challenge” sponsored by Nassau Comptroller George Maragos for scholarships and ideas that can potentially be used to start new businesses on Long Island.

Participating schools include Division Avenue High School, MacArthur High School, Oyster Bay High School, Long Island Lutheran, Roslyn High School, Plainedge High School, New Hyde Park Memorial High School, Hicksville High School, Kellenberg High School, Massapequa High School, Sewanhaka High School, Freeport High School and the College Prep Academy for Business & Law in Hempstead.

Related: Levittown High Schools to Compete in Business Development Challenge

The teams that win the competitions will receive $1,500 scholarships from Hofstra University and $4,000 will be split among the team that comes in second.

“We’re trying to instill in all the high school kids a spirit of entrepreneurship. We want them to conceptualize business opportunities, think outside the box and I’m confident that a lot of good business ideas will come out of this competition, but more importantly kids will be motivated to research and determine what they want to do in their careers,” Maragos said at a press conference at Massapequa High School on March 19 “We’re going to be incredibly surprised with what they’re going to come up (with) and I see businesses jumping on the bandwagon and coming to hear these new ideas that the kids have.”

Though the students are free to present business plans of any sort in the competition, the comptroller’s office has made suggestions in the areas of biotechnology, wireless technology, education, food distribution and the Nassau Hub and rebuilding the area around the Nassau Coliseum.

“But it’s up to them to conceptualize and dream as to what they want to be doing,” Maragos said.

Follow the event on Twitter and on Facebook.