2019 Youth Business Awards
On Wednesday 20 November Darwin High School Business Enterprise students received recognition at the NT Youth Business Awards at Parliament House Darwin for their efforts and achievements in business and enterprise. Darwin High School was awarded the Overall Winner for 2019 for Consistently High Performing Entries.
By teacher Jay Prakash
Several senior secondary students were recognised for their efforts and achievements in learning about business and enterprise. The Award is an annual joint program between the Department of Education and the Department of Trade, Business and Innovation.
Darwin High School won the overall trophy in the Youth Business Awards for the “quality and breadth” of its competition entries. We won four awards out of five.
Category 1 – Darwin High student Nathan Lee (year 12) won this award by presenting a pitch and business model to potential investors – with his proposal for Northern Online Retail, which would provide website services to small businesses that couldn’t create and maintain their own sites.
The runner-up was a team from Darwin High as well – Shirley Guok, Michelle Woo Xhin Yi, YuinLi Ho and Cheyanne Pusparajan – for their food retail proposal, Fusion Lab.
Category 2.
The runner-up was a team from Darwin High – Elleshya Khun, Amanda Lisboa and Phoebe Mitchell – for a food retail proposal called SweetAZ.
Nathan also won the Innovation Award.
Students who entered the awards submitted business reports or operational plans and analysed markets, assessed opportunities for potential and growth, considered business structures, and created financial models and records.
Some students ran their own businesses for a number of weeks. While food businesses were still popular and very successful, some students ventured out into less well established markets.
Guest speaker Miles McLoughlin, who owns innovative food and drinks company Gammon Creations, told students at the awards ceremony that business people needed passion and good time-management skills, plus a strong “platform” – something that people wanted to buy.
Congratulations to all the winning students and participating students. Students received money ranging from $300- $100, trophies and certificates. The school received a cheque of $500.00.
Thanks to Michelle Elliott, Matthew Atfiled!
