Competitions

The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur hosts several competitions each year.

Impact Competition

The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur has partnered with Impact Competition to host the first annual event at Culver Academies. For this year’s event, the Impact Competition partnered with Culver Blessings in a Backpack. The goal is to provide Culver Blessings in a Backpack with sustainable, impactful ideas that will benefit the stated needs of the organization.

“The Impact Competition incentivizes the smartest students in the country to learn more about the issues in their community, find solutions, and implement them to make a real difference in the world around them.”Lance BreitsteinFounder, Impact Competition

The Miclot Competition

Thanks to an endowment by Andy and Sharlene Miclot of Austin, Texas, The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur’s Miclot Family Business Plan Competition provides Culver students with a realistic competition requiring teamwork, collaboration, and field research, under the guidance of a mentor entrepreneur.

The Miclot Family Business Plan Competition is actually an opportunity assessment plan competition, and the term “business plan” is used for the sake of brevity. This competition includes a description of the product, service, or venture and its market need. Competitive products, services, and ventures are assessed, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor. The plan includes the unique selling propositions of the product or service, along with future growth and characteristics of the market.

Any Culver Academies student is eligible to compete in the Miclot Family Business Plan Competition. For instructions on how to compete, please click below for the competition guidelines.

View Guidelines

2024 Winners

The winners of the Miclot Family Business Plan Competition hosted by The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur were announced on Sunday, May 5. The judges of the competition were Ms. Jacqueline McCloskey `13 – Fair Oaks Farms – and Mr. Francis Ellert – Coca-Cola Bottling Company.

1^st Place ($5,000): Spencer Reagan '24 (Salt Lake City, Utah) – S.R. Eco: The Eclipse – a business model featuring a solar cell phone case designed for wireless charging and EMF suppression.
2^nd Place ($1,000): Linda Su '24 (Xiamen City, China) – CareEase – a business model featuring a service that provides caregivers of loved ones with dementia emotional and educational support.
3^rd Place ($500): Michael Mosely '24 (Culver, IN) – Cleat Care – a business model featuring an individual, athletic cleat cleaning product.

Past Winners

Past Winners

2023: Britton Crockett '25 (Johnson City, TN) and John Afari-Aikins '24 (Carmel, IN) – Healthy Homes – a business model designed for preventative home maintenance.

2022: National Property Consolidation Network – Sean Coxhead ’24 (Palmetto Bay, FL) – A business plan that removes the bank out of home mortgages and allows for smaller share investment opportunities. Mentor: Steve Medwin

2021: No competition due to COVID-19 campus restrictions.

2020: No competition due to COVID-19 early dismissal.

2019: Slide – Luis Franco, Beau Barich, and Xinrui Shi – A case with three interchangeable batteries for cell phones building of an old idea when cell phones first became pocket-sized. The new design reduces the size of the batteries and case, making them more convenient and accessible.

2018: STEM Shot – Harrison Steck and Corbin Steck – A smartphone application that would let students and teachers use their devices to complete assignments and spur discussions about the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

2017: Pulse – Nicolas Walker & Ryan Gies – A mobile application that can be the “heartbeat” of a campus. It can be used to highlight everything from major events to micro-level happenings. It lends transparency to what is actually happening at a school, all based on user preferences.

2016: Channel Abroad – Charles Zhang – A platform where those interested in studying abroad could access first-hand information and meet like-minded people.

2015: VisSig – Rayford Dexter El II, Sam Concannon, and Josh Thompkins – A visual identification electronic system to protect credit card integrity

2014: Studebiker – Brennan Hussey & Santiago Aguirre – A campus-wide bicycle rental company.

2013: C4 – Adam Stathakis & Hayes Barnes – A website for ambitious people to share goals and keep track of progress that they make.

2012: VidBid – Harris Allen & Baily Roubos – An online auction site with video.

2011: spAIR – Sky Strycker & Madeleine Loney – Tiny suitcases with toiletries and clean clothes for stranded travelers or travelers whose luggage is lost.

2024 Judges

Francis Ellert `85

Francis Ellert `85 is a Culver Summer School and Camps graduate and has lived in Culver, IN for thirty years. In 2001, he joined the Coca-Cola Bottling Company and operates the distribution facility in Plymouth, IN. He serves on the Executive Board of Coca-Cola that operates the distribution centers in both Kokomo and Plymouth. Now that two of Francis’s children work for Coca-Cola, there are four generations of his family who have served the company. Francis is committed to his local community where he has served over twenty years as a member of the Rotary Club, living by the motto “service above self.” That service is clear given his commitment to the PIDCO Board, the Marshal County Corrections Board, and as the president of the Plymouth Aquatics Club. Francis also served as Parent Board Director, as Culver Club Leader, and continues to serve on summer staff. He’s been married to his wife Susan (also a CSSC graduate) for over thirty years, meeting on the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee. Together, Francis and Susan have four children: Betse ’17, SSG’15, W’12, Pierce ’18, NB’17, W’14, Fritz ’21, NB’21, W’17, and Cabot ’23, NB’22, W’19.

Jacqueline McCloskey '13

Jacqueline McCloskey is a 2013 graduate of CGA where she was a proud member of Ciel Dorm. At Culver, Jacqueline served on SAO, LCA and as a Leadership Training Prefect. Jacqueline was a lacrosse player, earning the coaches’ award in 2011, and served as captain of the sailing team. After graduating from Culver, Jacqueline attended George Washington University. Jacqueline then joined Fairlife as a Communication Coordinator before being appointed to serve as an Assistant to the CEO of Fair Oaks Farms. At Fair Oaks, Jacqueline has held positions as Corporate Banquet Manager, Special Event Manager, and was recently named Director of Business Development. In this role, Jacqueline leads fundraising efforts for the educational and museum components of the business and serves as the lead for master planning strategies to integrate new businesses into the existing campus. Jacqueline recently gave a keynote at Culver Connections on leading with Great Vision.

Elevator Pitch

Culver entrepreneurs compete individually in the annual Elevator Pitch Competition, a contest that requires a "big idea" and a smooth sales talk in less than three minutes, the length of an average elevator ride. Contestants make their pitch while standing before two professional entrepreneurs who act as judges.

2023 Winner & Runners-Up

Solinna Onwochei '25(Kalamazoo, Michigan) won the $400 first prize for her idea of creating a bucket that would purify water that people in poorer countries get from rivers and lakes. She said the bucket would warm the water and instill it with water-purification powder to reduce the risk of people contracting various water-borne diseases.
Meagan Feick ’24 (Culver, Indiana) and Dylan Hamilton ’25 (Highlands Ranch, Colorado) came up with the idea of an app called “Scan” that would allow users to scan the complicated ingredients in skin care and other products to explain in plain language what each ingredient is and what it does. The students said the app would warn users of possible allergic reactions or cancer risks. The app also would give each product a grade of A to F to let users know how good it is for their skin.

2023 Judges

The contest was judged by four students and two Culver faculty members. Submissions were scored on creativity, impact on the issue, proof that the idea will solve the stated headache, and clarity of presentation.

Kennedy Burlison '24 (Marco Island, Florida)
Brit Crockett '25 (Johnson City, Tennesee)
Helli Kemmler ’24 (Culver, Indiana)
Aiden Cartmel ’25 Mercer Island, Washington, and
Ed Kelley, Master Instructor
J.D. Uebler, Master Instructor & Director of the Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur

Culver Academies students pitch ideas to solve everyday headaches

Solinna Onwochei, a sophomore at Culver Girls Academy, who came up with the idea of creating a battery-powered bucket that can treat impure water to make it safe to drink was selected as the winner of this year’s Culver Academies Elevator Pitch Competition sponsored by The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur.

Past Winners & Judges

2022

2022

Two business concepts that would reduce waste in the food industry were selected as the 2022 winners:

Isabel Bernard ’23 (San Pedro Sula, Honduras) won the environmental/sustainability and people’s choice awards for her concept for edible silverware.
Christian Tolksdorf ’23 (Skokie, Illinois) and Victor Zhang ’23 (Quingdao, China) won the general category with their concept on reducing food waste in the Lay Dining Hall.

2022 Judges

Ellen Joyce – A graduate of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and the ESTEEM program at the University of Notre Dame, Joyce is the co-founder and CEO of Digital Leader Academy, which brings Silicon Valley into the classroom by creating curriculums that educate students on emerging technology and the entrepreneurial process. Her goal is to increase the visibility of technology to women and under-represented students.
Rian McDonnell – A graduate of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and the ESTEEM program at the University of Notre Dame, McDonnell is the Founder and CEO of Flowaste, a food analytics platform that uses proprietary image recognition technology to food service providers to optimize meal preparations and portion sizing, while reducing labor costs to maximize profits and minimize excess.

Investment Simulator

The Investment Group

Currently, The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur is hosting an Investment Simulation where over thirty students registered. The Investment Group meets bi-weekly led by a group of students with a focus in discussing investing fundamentals, market concepts, and trends, and the sessions end with the traditional "gains and losses" predictions.

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