March 22, 2021 - 860 views
A group of Year 12 pupils at Rydal Penrhos emerged victorious from a major economics and business competition.
Suhas Shekar, Simeon Murphy-Thomas, Juan Rajagopal, Damisola Animashaun and Patrick Burke shot to victory in the final stages of the Enterprise Challenge set by Lancaster University School of Management.
The competition narrowed from a large first field of contenders down to a group of 20 of some of the top schools in the country including Maidstone Grammar School, Lancaster Royal Grammar and Dulwich College.
It consisted of several rounds where the individual teams needed to present their ideas for a new enterprise, fully costed, that has to meet with some of the UN Sustainability Goals.
The Rydal Penrhos team decided to think about the school’s links to Uganda to create a system of implementation of solar panels on Ugandan schools.
Once the solar panels were in place then laptops would be provided to the schools which could be powered solely by the solar panels giving no long-term running costs or susceptibility to power outages.
The laptops would enable a continuous education stream from local teachers and those all over the world. Hypothetically the team were going to go to the Overseas Development Agency (ODA), carbon offsetting schemes as well as private funders such as Dyson and British Gas to fund the project.
Having scooped up the Judges’ choice in round one, the pupils went on to the final five teams where they once again had to present their scheme and answer questions on it. Judged by lecturers at the Lancaster University School of Management alongside entrepreneurs in residence, the Year 12 boys were delighted to eventually be announced overall winners.
Lancaster is one of the biggest management schools in the country and one of the few that has a large enterprise section. This Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIR) prize is exceptional as a result of being judged not only by academics but by successful entrepreneurs operating in the business world.
Mr Mike Farnell, who has taught Economics and Business in Rydal Penrhos for 34 years, recently stepped back from his teaching role to focus on University and Careers advice and counselling.
He said: “They did amazingly well under very trying circumstances.They needed to work collectively whilst remote and in lockdown, creating individual roles whilst moving forward as team and meeting a lot of business briefs. Within 100 days they had to develop business plans, do cash flow forecasts, discuss implementation and create impressive presentations and prepare for questioning. I am really very proud of them.”
The actual prize extends well beyond a trophy. The team have won “for the school” an audience with an entrepreneur. Each of them has also been offered the opportunity of work experience in the management school and VIP tickets to the LUMS masterclass lectures which are normally only open to business leaders.
