Brevard students' invention wins them $96,000 scholarship

A team of students from Bayside High School won $96,000 in scholarship money at the Junior Achievement Blastoff Challenge Tuesday night.

Four teams from Brevard County high schools presented invention ideas to a group of judges at the Historic Cocoa Village Playhouse during the seventh annual Junior Achievement event. C.G. Goddard and Gianna Forsythe, juniors at Bayside High in Palm Bay, were named the winners.

They proposed to the judges "Tray'Pron," a tray-apron hybrid for sports fans to use at games. They showed a prototype of the product, a cardboard tray that includes a cupholder affixed to a plastic apron that goes around the user's head and covers the chest, resembling the contraption hotdog vendors wear as they walk through football stadiums.

"We wanted to stop people having to hold all their food in their hands" at sports games, Goddard said, as well as help customers prevent spilling on their favorite jerseys.

The team plans to manufacture it out of recyclable and biodegradable materials and sell it at local high school football games. They would eventually want to patent their idea and expand to school districts across the state.

In a Shark Tank-esque pitch meeting, they presented an in-depth marketing and financial plan to the judges, as well as a commercial they produced. To produce the product, they said they would seek a $70,000 loan from investors in exchange for 10 percent of profits over the next five years. They projected making $52,000 in profits the first year.

The judges liked the simplicity of the product.

"I really like the idea of the product," said Milo Zonka, chief financial officer at the Brevard County Property Appraiser's Office. "There's something there. There definitely is."

Source: https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2019/02/19/brevard-students-win-96-000-scholarship-through-junior-achievement-contest/2922799002/

"It’s a way to expand our curriculum without having to put out more resources. That’s a win for everyone."

Amy Kneesey, Vice Chairman of the Brevard County School Board

"JA is relevant to my school, more so now than ever."

Beth Westfall, Assistant Principal West Side Elementary School

"Junior Achievement is an outstanding, motivating program for our elementary students. Several of [our teachers] had JA volunteers last year and all had great praise for the program"

Hilah R. Mercer, Principal Cambridge Elementary Magnet School

"I have long believed that this JA experience is so valuable for our UCF students and that actually it is a rare win for all experience, the UCF students, the school teachers, the school students, the UCF Education Profs, and the JA sponsors."

Michael Johnson, PhD, UCF Professor, College of Education