A team of students from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts will be the first high school team to compete in the Arkansas Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition in its 19-year history.
Juniors Solomon Ni of Jonesboro, Victoria Hwang of Maumelle, Dawson Jones of Hot Springs and Vraj Modi of Hot Springs comprise Team Pedagogue. The team developed an app called Pedagogue that offers easy access to specialized, campus-specific tutors from a variety of fields of study. Students choose a tutor listed on the app. The student chooses options such as whether to work in person with the tutor, on or off campus, or online. Both the student and tutor are able to communicate their specific needs in order to work out the best times and places for each.
This year’s Arkansas Governor’s Cup will bring together 17 teams from seven universities and ASMSA to compete in four divisions. There are 12 teams in the undergraduate division in which ASMSA will compete. The semifinals will be held Thursday at the Little Rock Regional Chamber headquarters in downtown Little Rock. Six teams from the undergraduate division will advance to the finals on Friday, where judges will choose a first-, second- and third-place winner. Winners will be announced at the Governor’s Cup Awards Luncheon on April 11 in the Wally Allen Ballroom at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
Teams will make oral presentations to a panel of volunteer judges over two days in hopes of winning a share of the $154,000 cash prize pool. Presented by Delta Plastics of Little Rock, the prize pool is recognized nationally as one of the largest in the national collegiate business plan competition circuit.
Team Pedagogue will be competing against teams from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas State University at Beebe, Arkansas State University at Jonesboro, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Team Pedagogue originally developed their concept for the Congressional App Challenge during the fall semester. The team decided to submit their business plan for the Governor’s Cup competition in February. It was one of three ASMSA teams to submit an entry to the Arkansas Governor’s Cup competition.
Steve Rice, an entrepreneurship instructor at ASMSA, said Team Pedagogue used its interdisciplinary knowledge to come together as a team to take on the competition on top of the rigor of their academic and extracurricular schedules.
“I am so proud of all this year’s competitors at ASMSA,” Rice said. “With this visibility and awareness, several students from across campus have already expressed interest in competing next year.”