High school students in Tucson who are interested in entrepreneurship and inventing are participating in this year’s Junior Shark Tank summer internship program at the STAR Academic Center.
Winners of the program, which is modeled after the television show “Shark Tank,” can win $5,000 in scholarship money for first place and two additional $2,500 scholarships for other competing teams.
The five-week internship program began in May and runs until June 28 and was free to all students participating this year.
The monthlong program consists of hands-on learning with team instructors, mentors and guest speakers.
Students have been developing and building a product prototype from an idea attempting to solve a problem in their community by using product marketing research and entrepreneurial business practices to sell their product to potential investors.
Like the television show “Shark Tank,” teams are going to pitch their products to a panel of “sharks” — primarily STEM experts, business leaders and government officials — who will ask investor questions in order to determine the winners of the scholarship money.
The final competition day will be from 3-5:30 p.m. Thursday, June 27 in the Amethyst Room at Pima Community College’s Downtown campus.
The S.Y.STEM Coalition, which puts on the program, received support for Junior Shark Tank from sponsors including Raytheon, Tucson Electric Power, the Marshall Foundation, Pima JTED, Next Tucson and Startup Tucson.
