As judges of this week’s High School Business Plan Competition at Howard University Law School, we were able to: a) share with the students our experiences conducting data analysis; and b) assess five business plans focused in talent development, aerospace engineering, finance, education and law. I took the opportunity to help students understand the different type of transactions that can lead to litigation. I personally: (i) favored those business plans that demonstrated a positive impact in people’s lives over those that were mainly showing a potential financial success; and (ii) enjoyed the interaction with the judges, Ms. Julie Dacar, Mr. Howard Goldberg, Mr. Raymond Reeves, and Ms. Mary Catherine Stricland.

The writers were compensated through SYEP. The winners were invited to travel to Philadelphia and the Second and Third-place received a cash award. Congratulations to the 38 students that joined the competition, the Youth Leadership Foundation(YLF) team, especially to Morgan Downing who facilitated this event and Sandra P. Buteau for nominating me as a judge.