Bold ideas from 2 local students are among just 60 semifinalist submissions selected from over 3,700 nationwide to pitch at the Mott Million Dollar Challenge, June 15-16 in downtown Flint.
FLINT, Mich., June 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Two students from Washington have been selected as semifinalists in the Mott Million Dollar Challenge, a national pitch competition for K-12 students.
More than 5,300 young people from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. submitted over 3,700 business ideas and social solutions to the Challenge. From those entries, 1,500 submissions were selected in the first round. Now, the creators behind the top 60 ideas are advancing to compete at a live national event in Flint, Michigan next week.
The Washington semifinalists and their ideas are:
MagicVerse-Kids, A Universe of First Creations — Isha Sharma (6th Grade, Beaver Lake Middle School, business pitch): A platform that partners with daycares to use AI to transform children’s artwork into digital keepsakes, scrapbooks, and personalized products, helping families preserve creative memories.
PureDrain — Kiren Makam (8th Grade, Tyee Middle School, social pitch): A portable storm drain filtration system that captures pollutants in runoff before they enter local ecosystems, helping protect forests and reduce the spread of invasive species.
As semifinalists, each project will be awarded $5,000. The students will pitch live in front of judges during the final competition June 15-16 in Flint.
Funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation as part of its centennial celebration, the Mott Million Dollar Challenge is administered by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) in collaboration with VentureLab, Young Entrepreneur Institute (YEI), the Afterschool Alliance, Collaborative Communications and the 50 State Afterschool Network. The Challenge is designed to shine a light on entrepreneurship education as a meaningful way to help students build skills they need to navigate and shape the future.
Learn more about the Mott Million Dollar Challenge and explore semifinalist ideas at https://mottmillion.org/60-semifinalist-pitches/.
Contact:
Jen Peters
[email protected]
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SOURCE Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
