Sophia Acosta, left, was the Innovation Challenge’s first-place winner. Also pictured is Ning Duong, SVP, Chief Operating Officer at Credit Union West, the event’s financial sponsor.

Three Glendale Community College students won $5,000 in prize money at the GCC Innovation Challenge in February.

This is the third consecutive year that GCC has held this competition, which is open to campus student-entrepreneurs to pitch their business or product ideas. Credit Union West, a long-standing partner and supporter of this event, has sponsored the cash prizes for the Innovation Challenge three years in a row.

These three students won for their business ideas at the final competition at the Innovation Challenge.

• Sophia Acosta, the first-place winner, won $2,500 for her pitch for a financial app idea, “Finance Friend.” The app is geared toward high school and college students as an educational resource and money management tool to learn good money habits and strategies and limit higher education debt.
• The second-place winner, Carson Roubison, won $1,500 for his nonprofit idea called “Kindness Through Your Lens” that will give elementary school children a creative outlet as storytelling through photography.
• The third-place winner, Megan Bonno, has already started her business, Designs from Threads, which is an embroidery shop specializing in uniforms and custom designs for businesses and customers. Hers is a minority-owned business whose mission is to offer people with autism a great place to work as well as be an advocate for equal pay for people with disabilities.

The three winners will have the chance to represent GCC at The Big Pitch, a competition across all 10 Maricopa County colleges. The students will pitch their ideas on Wednesday, April 13 to win cash prizes totaling $25,000.

The judging panel for the final competition included Ning Duong, SVP, Chief Operating Officer at Credit Union West; Kelli List Wells, owner of Charley’s Sports Grill and education committee member for the Glendale Chamber of Commerce; Yolanda Facio, Small Business Development Center advisor and small business adjunct faculty at GCC; and Brent Kleinman, GCC business communication faculty.

Faculty members who made the event possible include Dr. Gabriela Cojanu, founder of the GCC Innovation Challenge student pitching competition and Small Business Management and Entrepreneurial Studies GCC faculty; and faculty members Heather Merrill, Brent Kleinman, Rachelle Hall, Kendra Swenson, Janet Brooks and Yoland Facio.

Learn about entrepreneurship education and funding opportunities at gccaz.edu/innovation-hub. To support student entrepreneurs through grants and events such as the Innovation Challenge, donate to the GCC Achieve fund by clicking here and selecting “GCC Achieve Fund GC #4513-1” in the designation drop-down.

This story was originally published in the Glendale Independent.