DUBLIN– Believe in Ohio is a student entrepreneurship program to develop STEM innovators. High school students compete to earn cash awards in local high school STEM Commercialization Plan and STEM Business Plan competitions. The highest rated plans in the local high school competitions then competed in Regional Plan competitions.
The one hundred highest scoring regionally judged plans each received a $1,000 scholarship to any Ohio college or university or technical center and were entered into the Believe in Ohio State STEM Commercialization Plan and STEM Business Plan Competition, at which hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional scholarships were awarded.
Teams from Van Wert High School earned scholarships for their STEM commercialization plans. The Van Wert team of Joshua Reichert and Robert Spath developed their plan, “Binder Ring Correction.” They were awarded a $5,000 scholarship for their STEM Commercialization plan. The team of Ian Rex and Natalie Benner received a $5,000 scholarship for their plan “Improved Shopping Wheel Caster.” The team Hunter Martz and Keigen Martz were awarded a $10,000 scholarship for their “New Spike Design for Cross-Country Shoes.”
A STEM Commercialization Plan is a document that uses science or technology to tell how a new or existing STEM concept, prototype, process, idea or technology may be applied, or further developed to provide a solution to a marketplace or societal problem, need or opportunity. It contains an assessment and plan, and a discussion of the concept’s likely commercial success.
A total of 37 STEM Commercialization and STEM Business Plans were awarded with $277,500 in scholarships at the Believe in Ohio State Competition. These scholarships can only be used to attend an Ohio college, university or technical college.
