Ford County Youth Entrepreneurship Competition

Twenty-nine students presented their business concepts on Wednesday, November 9th, 2022 at the Seventh Annual Youth Entrepreneurship Competition (YEC). YEC is hosted by the Dodge City/Ford County Development Corporation and was held at the Dodge City Community College. Students were scored on their executive summary and four-minute presentation by a panel of local judges. This local entrepreneurship competition is part of the YEC series by NetWork Kansas. The winner of the local competition will go on to compete at the state competition on April 20th at Kansas State University.

Esai Valverde won first place and $1,500 with his business Valverde Poultry. Second place winner, Adriel Aldave won $1,000 with his business Kaiser Entertainment and Christian Barrientos with Atlas won third place and $500.

The goal of the competition is to expose students to entrepreneurship. “All the students did an excellent job presenting their business ideas.” said Mollea Wainscott, Assistant Director for the Dodge City/Ford County Development Corporation. “It is really amazing to see our youth think like entrepreneurs, they put a lot of time and work into their business plans.” This event was sponsored by SMH Consulting, Victory Electric, and Cargil.  Many community members support this event by sponsoring, judging, presenting and mentoring the students.

For more information contact Mollea Wainscott with the Dodge City/Ford County Development Corporation, at 620-371-3869 or molleaw@dodgedev.org.

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