GCHS students offer business proposals in Youth Entrepreneur Challenge

By SCOTT AUST / Greater Garden City

Renae Jones, Garden City High School junior, took first place in the Finney County Youth Entrepreneur Challenge on Wednesday with her idea for an indoor roller skating rink and entertainment center that would provide a family-friendly environment for children, teens and adults.

“I’m gonna cry later, that’s how I feel about it,” Jones said with a laugh afterward..” I’m not gonna tell my parents until I walk through door and say, ‘Look at this!’”

The idea for the business grew out of Jones’ enjoyment of roller skating with her mother and a common theme among her peers wishing there were more to do in Garden City.

In the future, Jones plans to attend college is considering a career in accounting.

“I feel like part of the reason I won this is because I did research into money, and that was my favorite part about it,” she said.

By finishing first, Jones received a $1,000 prize. Jones said she likely will put the prize money into savings for college.

Twenty-two Garden City High School students prepared 18 entries into this year’s Youth Entrepreneur Challenge. Six judges representing local leaders and business owners served as judges for the event, which is sponsored by Network Kansas with the assistance locally of representatives of GCHS, Downtown Vision and Finney County Economic Development.

Lea Ann Seiler, Southwest Region Manager for Network Kansas, told the students they should all be proud of themselves for their efforts, noting that there are 2,000 students at GCHS.

“Every one of you are ahead of those 2,000 who didn’t try this. Some of us were in our 40s before we ever created an executive business plan or made a pitch to someone. You are years ahead,” she said. “It’s really cool that you did this.”

Seiler said Garden City always puts on a good event.

“Mrs. Dortch does an amazing job preparing the kids,” she said. “I really think that the YEC over the years is proving to increase entrepreneurship in communities. In another 10 years we’re going to have some really solid numbers that people can put their hands on on Main Street.”

Ember Dortch, GCHS business teacher, told the kids she was proud of them and said they did an amazing job.

“I love this event because it gets my kids out of the classroom and into the real world where they’re talking to business people. They are writing business plans and they are doing things that we just talk about in books,” she said. “This is my favorite event. It is always stressful but it’s definitely worth it.”

Regional first place winners from across the state will move on to the state YEC competition on April 28 in Manhattan.

In addition to Jones, other winning entries included: