A team of Business, Finance and Marketing students from Sussex Tech was one of nine teams statewide to advance to the final competition in the inaugural Diamond Challenge preliminary competition at Delaware Technical Community College. Seniors Devin Deloach and Jenna Stevens, junior Tyler Butler and sophomore Emily Nichols pitched the Raven Eyes school photography store as their business concept.

Diamond Challenge provides students an impactful, hands-on learning opportunity. By working with team members to devise, submit and pitch a business concept, participants develop their creative, problem-solving and communication skills. Teams’ written business concepts and pitches are scored on feasibility and potential by panels of experts.

Forty-two teams competed in the preliminary competition. The Sussex Tech team will now compete at the finals Thursday, April 18, at the University of Delaware. They won $500 in the preliminaries and will be competing for a top prize of $7,500, $5,000 for second or $2,500 for third.

The Diamond Challenge is a partnership among Delaware Technical Community College, Junior Achievement of Delaware, Glasgow High School, Delaware’s Department of Education, and two University of Delaware programs - the Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship, and the Horn Program in Entrepreneurship. Its mission is to provide high school students with outstanding opportunities to explore entrepreneurship as a viable career path and help them acquire valuable knowledge and skills.