Daisha Jackson, a senior at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center in Rhode Island, won first place and a $5,000 scholarship in the Lieutenant Governor’s Entrepreneurship Challenge, a business pitch competition for high school students. The Credit Unions of Rhode Island are the principal sponsor of the event, serving in that role since the program’s debut in 2018 under then Lt. Governor McKee. Their sponsorship helps to award more than $14,000 in scholarship prizes.

In all, five presenters received scholarship awards in Saturday’s event streamed LIVE on YouTube as a presentation of CCUA’s Better Values-Better Banking campaign.

1st Place, $5,000: Daisha Jackson, “Yoga for All,” The Met High School; 
2nd Place, $4,000: Faith Basler, “NugSafe,” East Greenwich High School; 
3rd Place, $2,500: Zainabou Thiam, “SunuBody,” The Met High School; 
4th Place, $1,500: Alyssa Davidson “Crow`s Nest Art Supply,” Scituate High School; 
5th Place, $1,000: Siddharth Gupta, Liam Helfrich, and William Sturla, “Community Connections,” Barrington High School. 

“I am deeply proud of today`s contestants, all of whom made compelling and interesting presentations. I hope that, in addition to the scholarships they won, our students have come away more enthusiastic than ever about becoming entrepreneurs,” said Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos. “Today showed that the future of Rhode Island`s small business community is bright.”

CCUA President/CEO Ron McLean and Chief Advocacy Officer Adrian Velazquez joined with several Rhode Island member credit union CEOs at the event to applaud the students for their enthusiastic business pitches.

“The Credit Unions of Rhode Island were excited to help bring back the Lieutenant Governor’s Entrepreneurship Challenge this year,” noted McLean. “By taking a front seat in providing scholarship dollars to fuel the challenge today, credit unions help nourish and foster tomorrow’s successful business leaders throughout the Ocean State.”

See full coverage of the Entrepreneurship Challenge, plus access to the entire livestream at GoLocalProv.

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