**UPDATE: THIS CONTEST HAS COMPLETED**

Do you watch Shark Tank? Do you have a business idea that you want to pitch? Whether it's a product or an idea, entrepreneurs have to start somewhere. And it usually begins on paper.

TeenInk is proud to present the 2019 Entrepreneurship Essay Contest sponsored by GATSVI and GATI. 

We have partnered with GATI (Gifted and Talented Institute) and GATSVI (Gifted and Talented Silicon Valley Innovators) to hold an essay contest where teens can submit their business ideas and have a chance to win a full-paid tuition ($7995 value) to one of the following residential summer programs in 2019:

GATSVI Entrepreneurship Summer Program @Stanford and Berkeley
Take classes at both Stanford University and UC Berkeley, plus access world-renowned mentors and instructors from Silicon Valley's top companies, including Google, Apple, and Facebook. In this exclusive immersion program, students will not only launch and accelerate their own startup companies with like-minded peers from all over the world, but also pitch their business before investors for real Silicon Valley funding. 

BEAM Research & Innovation Summer Camp @UC Irvine
Passionate students interested in cutting edge and hands-on science, engineering, AI, or medical research and lab publication experience ought to join us at University of California Irvine (UCI) Gifted and Talented Institute (GATI). In this program students will join research teams of the prominent UCI research faculty. 

Fortune 500 Leadership Summer Program @ UC Irvine Business School
In this program students will sit in on real MBA-level classes at UCI, shadow Fortune 500 executives, partake in micro-internships, learn personal branding from Disney® executives, gain hands-on sales and marketing experience, and prepare to land internships at US companies. This program is recommended for aspiring, future business leaders.

Essay Topic

Pick a company. If you can be the CEO of that company (or be the co-founder of a startup which challenges that company), then "why, what, and how" would you bring innovation to disrupt the status quo?

How to Enter Contest

To submit a written essay, please complete the following steps:

1) If you haven't already, create a TeenInk account (for free!) here.
2) Once logged in, click the "Submit to TeenInk" button at the top right corner or click here.
3) Select "Article/Poetry" then click the "Next Step" button.
4) Select "Private" if you do not want your essay to be published for public viewing.
5) Choose "Opinion". Then select "Other".
6) In the "Additional Tags" field, be sure to enter "2019 Entrepreneurship Essay Contest".
7) You are done! Feel free to reach out to editor@teenink.com to follow up on your submission status.

To submit a video essay, please complete the following steps:

1) If you haven't already, create a TeenInk account (for free!) here.
2) Once you have recorded your video essay and uploaded it to YouTube, click the "Submit to TeenInk" button at the top right corner or click here.
3) Select "Video" then click the "Next Step" button.
4) In the "Type of Video" field, select "Interviews".
5) Be sure to check the "2019 Entrepreneurship Essay Contest" tag.
6) Enter the YouTube URL link and click "Submit Video".
7) You are done! Feel free to reach out to editor@teenink.com to follow up on your submission status.

**Submission Deadline is April 19th, 2019**

If you are submitting a video clip, please use the same format as the following example video:

Prize Details

The winners will be announced on April 30th, 2019!