The Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA), a global competition of students running revenue-generating businesses while carrying full college course loads, today announced the Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner. Chelsea Sloan, University of Utah student and founder of Uptown Cheapskate, a teen/young adult fashion exchange franchise, is the competition’s first female winner. She will receive $150,000 in cash and in-kind business services from the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) to help propel her business to the next level.
Sloan opened the first Uptown Cheapskate location in Salt Lake City, Utah with her brother, Scott Sloan, in 2009. After just eight months in operation and turning a profit, Sloan franchised the trendy consignment store and has since expanded to 20 locations in 12 states. Sloan first won the EO Alchemy regional competition in Seattle before beating the top 30 international student entrepreneurs at Global Finals at the New York Stock Exchange on November 16th. These 30 semi-finalists competed and were selected from a field of roughly 1,100 applicants from 42 countries on 6 continents. The 2012 Global Finals competition marked the most female finalists, with 7 women making it to the top 30.
“Participating in the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s GSEA program has been a once in a lifetime experience,” said Chelsea Sloan. “The networking, mentorship, and training that I have received is priceless and winning the title pushes my passion for entrepreneurship even further.”
“The caliber of contestants in this year’s Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Global Student Entrepreneur Awards is absolutely incredible,” said Samer Kurdi, EO Global Chairman. “These students, who have founded successful businesses while still in school, are changing industries, communities, and the world and they inspire all of us to become better entrepreneurs and global citizens.”
First Runner Up: Mikhail Naumov is a Rutgers University student and founder of The GREEN Program, a provider of experiential education programs in Costa Rica. GREEN, or Global Reusable Energy Education Network, combines volunteering with education and develops programs that teach participants about reusable energy through developing an actual green energy site for an area in need.
Second Runner Up: Brett Sheffield is a student at the University of Manitoba in Canada and founder of Sheffield Farms and Stay Fit Health Club. Founded in 2008, Sheffield Farms is a 1,700-acre grain farm in rural Manitoba that utilizes the latest farming technology. Stay Fit Health Club is a 24-hour fitness center in its first year of operation. After winning the Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) competition, Sheffield advanced to the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s GSEA to take second place.
Social Impact Award: Elizabeth Aguirre Moreno Valle, a student at TEC de Monterrey in Mexico started the Fast Fruit Factory. The company provides fresh fruit and fruit juices at kiosks at schools, universities, and malls with the mission to provide healthy food options.
Innovation Award: Mandar Tulankar, a student at Nuva College of Engineering in India and founder of Angels R&D Pvt Ltd., invented the mobile shoe charger that uses the pressure created by walking to power cell phones.
Lessons from the Edge Awards: Daniel Mishin, a Russian student at The Institute of Economics and Computer Science, started and owns Bear Hostels, a high quality, low price youth hostel brand throughout Moscow.
High School Winner: Tony Ren is a Canadian International Baccalaureate student at Bayview Secondary School, as well as founder and president of Median Web Solutions. With just $3,000 he created a web design agency that customizes sites for the youth market. He has since gone on to become the president of EasyStudy Canada, an academic resources site for secondary school students in Ontario, and is the CTO of Epitome Marketing, a youth based marketing firm. He is also one of the youngest employees of the Royal Bank of Canada where he is working to develop the Social Business Association, an entrepreneurial social collaboration platform.
Graduate Student Winner: A recent MBA graduate from Brigham Young University, Brad Moss founded React Games in 2008 to develop mobile games for smartphones and tablets for brands. Since then, Moss has created award-winning games and grown the company to more than 21 employees and has worked with EA, Hasbro, A&E, and Intel.
The Global Finals is a featured program of the Kauffman Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, and is sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, NYSE Big Start Up, and Thomas Franchise Solutions Ltd. This year’s judges included representatives from NYSE Euronext, The Kauffman Foundation, Cisco, The New York Times, Upstart Business Journal, EO and former GSEA champions.
Image Credit: gsea.org
