(MSC News)--Two Sabetha High School business students who were selected as finalists in the Washburn University Be Ready! Entrepreneurship Challenge, and received awards of $500 per project courtesy of the Nemaha County Commission to implement their business ideas, were honored at a luncheon on the Washburn University campus on Wednesday, September 28.  

The Be Ready! Challenge was established to encourage high school students to pitch and implement a new idea or an innovation for an existing business.

The Challenge was open to all high school students in Brown, Jackson, Nemaha, and Shawnee counties. This past spring, students who registered for the competition were given the opportunity to pitch their idea to a panel of local businessmen and women, receiving valuable feedback.  

Students then uploaded a 3-minute video pitch and submitted it to Washburn University to compete for a finalist position as selected by School of Business professors.

On Wednesday, the 13 finalists were invited to Washburn University campus to report on their results and share their entrepreneurial experience in a "trade-show" with the other finalists and faculty.  Washburn awarded the winning student entrepreneurs a total of $10,000 in scholarships from the Washburn University School of Business.

Two Sabetha High School students were honored for their achievements.

Senior Madison Williams, daughter of Jeff & Lea Williams, who created “Charming”, a bee-keeping and honey-related product business providing both bee-keeping services as well as soaps, lotions, and other honey-related products. Honey-related products is a very fast growing sector of the homemade goods market. Madison was responsible for creating the products, packaging, and marketing her products. She appeared at craft fairs and art shows in locations around the state. For those efforts, Williams was named the 3rd place winner and received a $1000 scholarship to Washburn University.

Sophomore Lexie Phillips, daughter of Eric & Carrie Phillips, who created “Pitch Whiffs”, a business in which Lexie provided individual or group softball lessons to girls looking to learn or improve their pitching and other softball skills. Lexie was attempting to capitalize on the momentum caused by Sabetha adding softball as a spring sport for 2017. For her efforts, Phillips was named a finalist in the contest and received a $500 scholarship to Washburn University.