Under the team name, Sightseeding, Junsoo and Tarek wowed judges and went on to become the winning team in the Global Youth Entrepreneurship’s (GYE) recent international competition. The two Grade 12 students took on incredibly complex global issues which negatively affect those working in the agricultural industry, and through their unique innovative thinking created and expertly presented their much-needed sustainable solutions.
Over 200 students from all over the world applied to take part in the competition, with 25 teams being chosen to enter the regional final rounds. These rounds were judged by the GYE Competition Jury team which was comprise of professors form leading universities, experts working in Silicon Valley, and elites from 500 Fortune Companies.
Speaking on why they decided to join the GYE Competition, the two students shared “Our prior experiences with the entrepreneurial incubation space at ISHCMC, our extracurricular student group focused on opportunities for students to be placed in entrepreneurial settings, and our own personal interests had us seeking opportunities to test our entrepreneurial skill sets. When we were made aware of the Global Youth Entrepreneurship Competition by Ms. Green and Mr. Wallace, we jumped at the opportunity knowing exactly what idea we wanted to bring forth.”
The Grade 12s introduced their vision: Sightseeding, which in essence seeks to change the current agriculture landscape by introducing a mobile application developed with the mission to provide farmers with valuable knowledge, technicalities, and conveniences. The app collects user-specific information to formulate consulting plans, which are designed to maximize crop yield and profit.
For Tarek and Junsoo, sustainability in the agricultural sector has long been an area they have been interested in, “Agriculture plays a chiefly role in the global economy and is considered the backbone of developing economies like Vietnam. The global agriculture industry employs millions worldwide and supports our demand for necessary food resources.”
The competition does not mean the end for the students’ initiative, in fact it marks the beginning as two Grade 12s shared. “At this stage, the GYE competition has given us the knowledge, financial resources, and enabled us to build the fundamental framework for Sightseeding to evolve into a genuine benefit corporation.”
“The next step for Sightseeding would be to collaborate with freelance software development firms which would help us perfect a minimum viable product for Sightseeding, and then locally launch the application. From this stage, the development of the application would consist of tight communication with a local community of farmers who use Sightseeding to enhance their operations and consistently fine-tune the feature set to ensure that it properly satisfies the needs of our local audience. Once this development is complete, we could consider launching Sightseeding publicly.”
On reflecting on the experience, when questioned on whether they would recommend it, the two shared; “Absolutely, the GYE Competition was the perfect opportunity to apply our classroom knowledge on a real-life, global stage. Awards and prize money aside, the competition inspired us to bring forth a genuinely viable social entrepreneurship opportunity, and the experience taught us much about the importance of approaching social issues. Most importantly, we had great fun.”
They went on to share, “We hope our successes in this competition can encourage students not to shy away from opportunities like the GYE competition. In fact, we are the leaders of the ISHCMC Entrepreneurs Society (IES) this academic year, a student-led group focused on bringing entrepreneurship opportunities for students to participate in and providing mentorship throughout the process. Whether it’s the GYE competition or other options, we hope to continue actively developing the foundation of social entrepreneurship at ISHCMC.”
Congratulations Tarek and Junsoo for your fantastic achievement, we look forward to seeing what's next for both of you and Sightseeding.
To view Sightseeding's winning competition pitch in full, click here
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