2013: Third Year

Six finalists made presentations at the Tang Museum, vying for $50,000 in cash prizes and business services. The winners were:

• First Place: Summer Destinations. Samuel Schultz ’13 was awarded $20,000 for his plan to establish a placement service that matches Chinese young people with residential summer camps in the U.S. Having spent two years in China thanks to several study-abroad experiences, Schultz already was fluent in Mandarin. Schultz expects to have five times more placements in summer 2015 than in 2014, and is now expanding into summer group travel.
  
  
• Second Place: Rum Dogs, Inc. Alexander Nassief ’17 and Brianno Barros ’17 were awarded $10,000 in cash and $4,000 in legal services for their enterprise that has developed a proprietary method for aging rum in barrels submerged in the Caribbean Sea. Nassief went on to take the $10,000 second prize in the 2014 Freirich Competition and the $2,400 fourth prize in the 2015 Freirich Competition.
  
  
• Third Place: East Coast Lacrosse. Seth Berger ’14 was awarded a third prize of $5,000 in cash and $2,000 for his plan to develop the firm he established in 2010 into a leader in custom athletic apparel. Berger continues to achieve double-digit growth. Exhibiting at the 2014 World Lacrosse Championship, Berger established contacts from all over the U.S. and around the world.

Three other finalists were awarded cash prizes of $1,000. They were:

• Jasmyn Elise Story, a sophomore anthropology major who aimed to change the way casting agents hire extras through a new smartphone app;
  
  
• Kelsey Yam, a senior management and business major who proposed to establish a satellite program of Soccer Without Borders in western Uganda;
  
  
• Magdalen Andreoni, a senior studio arts major whose plan was to establish The Cookie Jar, “the only specialty cookie mobile shop in Chicago," she said.

In addition to Wekselbaum, mentors included:

• Rich Flaherty, president and CEO, Cove Risk Services, LLC;
• Jody Klein, president, ABKCO Records;
• Jim Rossi ‘82, managing partner, Saratoga Polo Association, and chief marketing officer, United States Polo Association;
• Mary Vail '80, president and chief designer, Joyelles Jewelers;
• Catherine Hill, F. William Harder Professor of Business Administration, Skidmore College.
  
  

In addition to Freirich, judges in the final round included:

• Alvaro De Molina P’15, former CFO, Bank of America Corp., and CEO, GMAC LLC;
• Susan Magrino Dunning ’83, President, Susan Magrino Agency;
• Brian Kelley ’00, Internet Entrepreneur and Technologist; Founder; Reputation.com;
• Nick MacShane ’91, President, Progress Partners;
• Rosendo Parra P’13, Managing Director, Daylight Partners; Owner, Millennium Farms;
• Ellen Sherman ’68, Producer, Dateline NBC;
• Michael Stein ’89, Founding Partner, Pensam Capital LLC.

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