High School Senior Wins 4-Year Scholarship To Rider

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ — Jayla Armani Swann’s dream of going to college is becoming a reality. Swann was named the winner of the Norm Brodsky Business Concept Competition at Rider University on Jan. 25, the university announced. The win comes with a full four-year scholarship to the university. Before that moment, the 17-year-old Baltimore resident said she never thought going to college was a realistic possibility.

The competition challenges high school entrepreneurs to present a business idea that they've thought of to a panel of judges, Shark Tank-style. This year, nine students were given four minutes to present their ideas on stage in the Bart Luedeke Center Theater and then faced questions from three judges.

Swann won with the Luxe Brush Co., whose innovation is to consolidate makeup brushes into one device.

Some other ideas presented in this year’s competition addressed practical problems, while others sought to tackle life and death scenarios, like saving pets trapped in hot vehicles. Some were technology-based, like making the exchange of textbooks easier on college campuses. Most grew out of the presenters’ own life experiences, such as treatments for ailments suffered by loved ones.

In addition to the scholarship available for seniors, cash prizes are awarded to the runners-up. The sophomore/junior division winner automatically wins entry into the senior finals when they are old enough.

The competition is sponsored by husband and wife Norm Brodsky and Elaine Brodsky. Norm, a long-time entrepreneur who is the namesake of Rider’s Norm Brodsky College of Business, founded eight successful businesses, including Citi Storage, the largest privately owned archive business in the country. He is a 1964 Rider University graduate.

"I strongly believe that anyone can be an entrepreneur," Brodsky said. "Just because you work for a company doesn't mean you can't be an entrepreneur within that company. It's a way of thinking."

Rider, which offers a major and minor in entrepreneurial studies, received more than 300 submissions for this year’s competition. To enter, applicants were required to submit a brief summary of their business concept, which was reviewed by a group of judges and winnowed down to the nine finalists.

For the live presentations, students were split into two divisions — the Sophomore/Junior Competition and the Senior Competition.

This was the third year Brodsky has sponsored the business competition. Before this year’s winner was announced, he praised all the participants.

“This takes a lot of energy and a lot of guts,” Brodsky told the participants before the winner was announced. “It's really hard to stand up in front of your peers and do what you did today.”

This year’s live finale judges were Bill Cunningham of Encompass Media Company; Jeanne Gray of American Entrepreneurship Today; and Joe Lopez of Uncommon Individual Foundation. Ziegler World LLC sponsored the competition.