Year 9 Social Enterprise Expo

Nina Seuret-Batterham, Year 9 Impact Leader  

On Thursday 29 May, Year 9s and their families attended the Impact Program Social Enterprise Expo at Monash University. 

This was an important night for all of us, as we finally had the opportunity to present and pitch the social business ideas we’d been working on throughout the semester.

Two weeks earlier, we took part in a ‘Shark Tank’-style experience, where we pitched our ideas to a panel of judges and in front of our peers. Out of 25 groups, six were selected as finalists.

At the Expo, these finalist teams pitched their ideas in front of the full audience — including families and a judging panel made up of Mr French, Mr Williams and Liz Bacchetti from Monash. The remaining groups presented their projects to parents in smaller sessions, where families cast their votes for the People’s Choice Award.

Although speaking in front of so many people was scary at first, we all really enjoyed the opportunity to showcase the final product of our hard work.

Congratulations to the winning team Beyond Years  — Caitlin McCulloch, Nanami Wong and Grace Anastasiadis. Their thoughtful idea involved students writing biographies of senior citizens through interviews, helping to reduce isolation and loneliness while offering older individuals a platform to share their stories. This heart-warming and easily implementable business idea was a deserving winner.

But they weren’t the only winners of the night — That Might Work  — Lachlan Griplas, Xavier Misso, Le Minh Trinh and Callum Chan took out the People’s Choice Award, which was also very well-earned. They proposed recycling and customising second-hand sporting equipment to support underprivileged families and help remove barriers to participating in community sport.

The entire night was a fun and engaging way to showcase our businesses and we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Although only two teams were the official winners on the night, every team was successful in developing ideas and businesses that have the potential to create positive impact in the world. Everyone should be incredibly proud of their efforts!

A huge thanks to Mr Williams, Ms Hedger, Josh, Mitch, and Liz from the Monash program for guiding us throughout this journey. We’re so grateful to have had this opportunity. 

Whether it was developing our public speaking, learning to work in a team, or writing a business pitch, everyone pushed themselves to try something new. Now we all have another new tool we can rely on! Overall, this project has been a fantastic opportunity for us to nurture our empathy, leadership and teamwork skills.