High school students can take a great idea and transform it into a viable business, according to the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. To support the concept, the Lally School will host its third annual business plan competition for high school students on Wednesday, May 21. The event is open to members of the Rensselaer campus and the local community.

Seventy students representing 25 teams will have an opportunity to pitch their budding ideas to a panel of management scholars, entrepreneurs, and area business leaders. On the day of the event, Lally School MBA and doctoral students will also provide coaching to each of the high school students prior to their presentation.

“We are very excited to be holding our third annual business plan competition for high school students at the Lally School,” said Thomas Begley, dean of the Lally School. “Entrepreneurship and innovation are hallmarks of the Lally School. The competition grows larger and better each year and we believe high school students benefit greatly from the process of coming up with an idea for a business, articulating the plan for developing it, and presenting it to a live audience of experienced entrepreneurs.”

The teams are comprised of high school students from Capital Region high schools, including Shaker High School, Niskayuna High School, and Emma Willard School. Additional student teams from New York state include Mayfield High School. Teams also hail from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California. In addition, a team from the Beijing Haidian Foreign Language Shiyan School and Shanghai Yangjing High School based in China will participate.

The competition is also sponsored by the Paul J. ’69 and Kathleen M. Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship, which helps to foster new generations of budding and successful entrepreneurs through outreach programs, education, and support systems. For more information about the Severino Center, visit http://lallyschool.rpi.edu/centers/severino/index.html.

For more information about the Lally School of Management, visit http://lallyschool.rpi.edu/.