Lake Forest College student-entrepreneurs to compete for $10,000

Lake Forest College student-entrepreneurs will compete for $10,000 in cash prizes during the final round of Pitch It! at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17, at the Gorton Community Center.

Throughout the evening, the six finalists will present to a panel of judges comprised of investors, entrepreneurs, and industry experts.

Pitch It! is Lake Forest College’s premier collegiate startup launch program. The annual business and social venture pitch competition helps entrepreneurial Foresters turn their ideas into viable businesses.

The business and student finalists are:

• DoDo Project: A social venture that offers a means to grow the West Himalayan yew—which contains a key, anti-cancer chemotherapy component—three to five times faster and in higher yields. – Melissa Ward ’18
• H.E.R Comforts: A social venture that addresses medical and social issues for women in Swaziland with menstrual pads made from banana leaves. – Lindelo Dlamini ’18, Kailey Gonzales ’18, and Jabulani Sidfundza ’19
• MyID: This business venture introduces a product that streamlines all student and faculty identification, information, and campus access on one card. – Ryan Widmer ’18
• Nabta: This social venture creates an online platform for aspiring entrepreneurs in Ghana to exchange project ideas and gain access to resources. – Noel Orwothwun ’19, Koku Donkor ’20, Moyosore Tejumola ’19, and Jake Ngugi ’21
• Nibipure: This social venture introduces a portable, cost-effective, weather-withstanding water barrel that can be used when people don’t have access to clean water, such as in a natural disaster. – Karla Figueroa ’21 and Fatemeh Riahi ’21
• SportSpek Trading: This business venture introduces an online day-trading platform for avid fantasy sports players. – Vito Brunetti ’19

Admission to Pitch It! is free and open to the public. The Gorton Community Center is located at 400 E. Illinois Road in Lake Forest.

Lake Forest College is a residential, national liberal arts institution located 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. The College has 1,550 students representing 44 states and 72 countries. For more information, visit www.lakeforest.edu.