Our incredible fellow, Ashley Johnson, has won the prestigious Milken Educator Award—often called the “Oscars of Teaching”!

Two of our Fellows, Melissa Higgason and Valentine Torres from Hobart High School, were featured in this CBS 60 Minuets segment!

Our Fellow, Kayce Corwin from North Kansas City School District was featured in the news!

“We are thrilled to embark on this exciting partnership with the STARTedUP Foundation,” said Jason Whitney, Chief Venture Officer at IU Ventures and Executive Director of the IU Angel Network. “By joining forces, we can amplify our impact, providing aspiring student entrepreneurs with the resources and mentorship needed to turn their dreams into reality.”

Mota spoke with Inside INdiana Business about his work at Signature School, his former students’ successes, and his involvement in the STARTedUP Innovation Educator Fellowship.

A New Tool To Fight Drug Addiction—Using Virtual Reality—Emerges From A University-Based Startup

After a March award of $100k from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the team demonstrated significant progress and was awarded an additional $100k prize for their efforts.

The trio beat nine Indiana high school teams and received thousands of dollars in scholarships and funding. Hilton and Schreid spoke with Inside INdiana Business about winning the state competition and what’s next for their business.

Ethan Hilton, an incoming first-year student at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, along with his teammates Tolen Schreid, an incoming aerospace engineering student at Purdue University, and Emily Rudolph, an incoming engineering student at Notre Dame, has won the 2024 Innovate WithIN competition, the largest high school pitch contest in the nation, with over 3,000 teams competing in 2024.

The year's biggest competition for the next generation of Hoosier entrepreneurs brought new ideas for stopping school shootings, making roads safer and AI legal assistants.

Teams from Northwest Indiana earned several honors during the 2024 Innovate WithIN State Finals on June 21 in Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indianapolis-based STARTedUP Foundation has revealed the 10 finalists for this year’s Innovate WithIN statewide pitch competition.

INDIANAPOLIS — You’ve heard of “Shark Tank,” but some Indianapolis students got their own chance to pitch their business ideas to some sharks of their own.

Ten teams of Lake County high school students did their best to pitch their problem-solving entrepreneurial ideas to a panel of judges Friday at Purdue Northwest as part of the Innovate WithIN regional pitch competition.

Kerry Ao and Naina Muvva learned that 80% of Americans can't identify basic financial literacy concepts. In response, they created Intertwined, an educational software platform that utilizes AI, pre-ChatGPT, to adapt the platform based on how each student interacts with the curriculum.

RELEASE: The STARTedUP Foundation’s Innovate WithIN is the largest high school pitch competition in the country and has grown year-over-year - with 2024 being another record breaking year. There were nearly 3000 students who signed up to compete with a 28% increase in the number of teams who submitted a finalized pitch, including a one-minute sizzle reel and lean business model canvas.

RELEASE: In a groundbreaking partnership, G-Unity Foundation, Pacers Sports & Entertainment, and The STARTedUP Foundation are coming together to ignite the spirit of entrepreneurship among Indianapolis youth. This dynamic collaboration aims to leverage the unique strengths of each organization to provide young innovators with unparalleled opportunities for growth and development.

This newsletter features Innovate WithIN kickoff, the 2023-2024 Innovation Fellows, statewide resources, new sponsors, and statewide Innovation Workshops!