On Sept. 22, 3DE sophomores presented solutions in groups for Spanx, a women’s clothing company, who needed a solution to their problem of finding a new warehouse. Having spent weeks brainstorming, Ayanna Alicea (10) stated how she and her group members Fedline Mertil, Keilla Michard, and Wideline Guerrier “were amazing people who like to intertwine their ideas together.”

This differs from last year’s students who only hypothetically brainstormed for different companies. This project improves and builds upon their entrepreneurship skills (i.e. dealing with money, pitching products, and creativity) to create successful business models in the future. “Having all those different mindsets, or those different ideas coming together, it kind of made the process easier. Also, we had a group member that made animations and designed it out from drafts like she made it herself,” Keilla Michard (10) said.

The sophomores learned how to create business  solutions and find good resources for research. Then, they took their research and final solution as a team to present to judges on their launch day. Alicea remarked on her group’s winning presentation, “I like that you get to improve and go up there on stage. With lights blasting in your eyeballs, and people all in the crowds and real judges judging you. I [also] like doing these case challenges…these are really fun.”

The process that the groups went through turned out to be a success. Unlike Alica, Mertil, Michard, and Guerrier, last year’s sophomores got on the stage and froze, lost track of their time, and lacked the skills to prepare for or continue with unforeseen questions from the judges.

Michard found the launch day to be a great experience for her—especially going through it with a group of people that were from her class. “They did a lot ,which I really appreciate from them because  that’s not what I’m used to and I really enjoyed it.”