Jesuit Entrepreneurship Club: Shark Tank
Senior leaders of the club pose at the beginning of a recent meeting.
This year the Jesuit Entrepreneurship Club is holding their first ever Shark Tank competition. The club is holding a contest for all the young entrepreneurs in Catholic Middle Schools in Portland to share their ideas.
The Jesuit Entrepreneurship club is new to Jesuit this year and was started by 6 seniors—Ansel Balmer, Dillon Mills, Dev Udata, Brendan Jones, Tucker Ademek, and Brook Rundle. These students started the club because they are passionate about business and wanted to share their ideas. The club meets in room 52 during Tuesday flex.
The club is putting on an all-day event on April 23rd. The format of the event will be just like how it’s done on TV, where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to “sharks” or investors to try to get money to help grow their business.
“We are all interested in pursuing business and think that this would be a good way for us to learn and help younger kids learn about business.” Ansel Balmer said “I also think it’s a good way for us to participate in the Jesuit community.”
The Entrepreneurship club is bringing in Jesuit Parents and Alumni that are involved in the business world to judge and act like the “sharks” from the TV show.
There will be a money prize the founders wouldn’t disclose. The all day event will include more than just the competition. The club is planning to have more activities and guest speakers.
“We might have some guest speakers come and give presentations about entrepreneurship and where it has taken them in life,” senior founder Brendan Jones said.
The club is also looking to have a competition for high schoolers at Jesuit and are looking for more people to join. The rules will be the same.
“We also want to have a high school competition if we can get enough teams together,” Jones said. “Overall it should be a really fun and exciting day. If any high schoolers are interested in potentially competing come by room 52 at flex on Tuesdays.”
JJ Gray is a senior and this will be his third year as journalism student. He is excited to be in the class and have a great time. In JJ’s free time, he reads about sports and listens to many different sports podcasts and radio shows. JJ loves listening to the Ringer Podcast Network every night. He also enjoys talking about and debating sports topics with his family and friends. JJ plays football and he skis at Jesuit high school. JJ is also very into the sneaker and shoe world. He loves to hike and be in the outdoors in his free time. JJ has a cat named Kendrick Lamar and a dog named Reggie and he loves to play with them. JJ has an older sister who graduated from high school last year and was in the journalism class at Jesuit. One of JJ’s favorite things to do is travel, his favorite place he ever visited is Amsterdam. JJ loves to read, write and listen to podcasts because they help him take his mind off other things.
