On Monday evening, the MTA LEAD program held its culminating event, as Yeshiva University High School for Boys (MTA) students pitched their business ideas to members of the LEAD Executive Council. Members of the council include Dr. Tamar Avnet (chair of the marketing department at YU’s Sy Syms School of Business), Harris Goodman (vice president of business development at Achieve3000), Shuey Jacoby (YUHS executive director), Rabbi Moshe Kinderlehrer (publisher and founder of the Jewish Link newspaper) and Michael Strauss (associate dean and entrepreneur-in-residence at Sy Syms).

Over the course of the year, students in the program had the opportunity to attend workshops and lectures from business leaders and entrepreneurs and receive mentorship from Sy Syms students, as they worked on creating a business plan for their own business ideas.

As the students entered the “tank,” they were excited at the chance to finally present their innovative ideas and the committee was exceptionally impressed with the quality and presentation of all the presented ideas. Presentations ranged from secure phone cases and book-bags to board games, location tracking stickers and even a site that allows for the easy booking of workers who can take care of small jobs.

Because of the high quality of all the presentations, the committee did not have an easy time deciding on the winner. After weighing the four primary factors of Innovation, Presentation, Practicality and IP merit, the committee awarded juniors Benjy Bral and Shlomo Meisels the award for their board game, “The Art of Mutiny.” Benjy and Shlomo look forward to continuing to work on the game, along with the continued help and guidance of the MTA LEAD Program.

“Hearing the various presentations over the course of the year helped us devise our business plan and inspired us to keep working on it,” said Benjy. “We’re also extremely thankful to our Sy Syms mentor, David Lauer, who was a great source of continued feedback,” added Shlomo.