Young Entrepreneurs, Make Your Pitch competition winners announced at Discovery 2018

TORONTO, May 1, 2018 /CNW/ - Six high school entrepreneurs were announced as winners of this year's Young Entrepreneurs, Make Your Pitch competition at Discovery 2018.

Presented by Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) and the Government of Ontario, the competition has showcased high school entrepreneurs from across Ontario for the past six years. Over 200 students applied to the Young Entrepreneurs, Make Your Pitch competition by submitting their business ideas online via a two-minute video and 20 students were chosen as finalists from online voting and judges' scores.

Each finalist was awarded a trip to Toronto to pitch their ideas live at Discovery 2018. From those 20 finalists, the following six were chosen as the winners:

• Austin Chan, The Wydlis Course, Markville Secondary School
• Luke Edward, BookSmart, St. Robert Catholic High School
• Yumnah Hussain, UniVisor, Dunbarton High School
• Molly Collier, Hockey Stick Holder, Kingsville District High School
• Mackenzie Huckvale, Mighty Molecules Entertainment Co., Bell High School
• Mackenzie McGuire, Imagine That, Moira Secondary School

"It is my pleasure to congratulate the six winners of this year's Make Your Pitch competition. While all the nominees displayed an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, the winners truly were a cut above," said Steven Del Duca, Minister of Economic Development and Growth. "This competition showed the strength of Ontario's next generation of business leaders —the winners all have the potential to become our province's new job creators, building their futures and the future of Ontario's economy."

Each of the winners receives reserved entry into the OntarioSummer Company program, a $750 education voucher and a Muse brain-sensing headband from InteraXon.

"Each year, the Young Entrepreneurs, Make Your Pitch competition is a great indicator of just how innovative, knowledgeable, and driven Ontario's high school students are," said Dr. Tom Corr, President and CEO, OCE. "I would like to congratulate all of this year's entrants, finalists, and winners. Along with our government partners we look forward to continuing to support the future innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders of this province."

Named Canada's Best Trade Show in 2010, 2011, 2016, and 2017, and celebrating 13 years of bold, new ideas, OCE's Discovery is Canada's premier innovation showcase. It brings together the best and brightest minds in industry, academia, investment and government to showcase leading-edge technologies, best practices and research in the areas of energy, fintech, cleantech, the environment, advanced health, digital media, information and communication technologies and advanced manufacturing. The annual conference and showcase attracts more than 3,600 attendees and 500 exhibitors.

Finalists videos for the 2018 Young Entrepreneurs, Make Your Pitch competition can be viewed at www.makeyourpitch.ca.

For more on Discovery, please visit www.ocediscovery.com.

SOURCE Ontario Centres of Excellence Inc.