Innovation Thrives at St. John’s as Students Compete at Pitch Johnny Event

December 4, 2020

For the first time in its four-year history, Pitch Johnny, St. John’s annual contest among student entrepreneurs, was waged on a digital platform where contestants proposed their next big ideas live before a virtual panel of judges and spectators.    

Six finalists who rose from among more than 20 original submissions for the University-wide pitch competition, “Pitch Johnny 2020–Innovation Thrives Here,” delivered presentations on their proposals for new products, businesses, and services on Saturday, November 14. At stake were cash prizes of up to $1,000 that winners use as seed money to help grow their projects. 

Sponsored by The Lesley H. and William L. Collins College of Professional Studies (CCPS) and individual investors, Pitch Johnny provides all students at the University with the opportunity to express and share their ideas in the hope that the best ones can become a reality, with help from St. John’s. The competition is part of the College’s initiative to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition to Pitch Johnny, CCPS offers a minor in Entrepreneurship as well as the Design Factory, where teams of students work with sponsor companies to make sure the company’s ideas are well designed.

The competition took place throughout the Fall 2020 semester.

Carmine P. Gibaldi, Ed.D., Professor of Management and Organizational Psychology, focused on the role perseverance plays in the development of a new idea. “Perseverance is vital to becoming a successful entrepreneur, and certainly during different times of our lives, we often face large and small challenges. The best way to overcome these challenges is with perseverance.”

In the first round, the young entrepreneurs who were within the For-Profit Division competed in one of three tracks—undergraduate students, graduate students, and women. The other division was for Social Entrepreneurship.

For the first time in the history of the competition, the Social Entrepreneurship Division was introduced at the event. “After years of hearing from St. John’s students who want to do good for their communities, it was fitting to set this up as a distinct division, and it is in keeping with the University’s Vincentian mission of giving help to those most in need,” said Kevin James ’11C, ’13MBA,  Assistant Dean, Director of Fiscal and Administrative Affairs for CCPS, and the lead organizer for Pitch Johnny.

Round one of the competition began on August 24, when students had until October 15 to submit three-minute, video-style pitches that were prescreened by a team of judges, which included established entrepreneurs, faculty, alumni, and professionals in various industries such as accounting, advertising, business, communications, and television. The judges then selected six pitches—three each from the For-Profit and Social Entrepreneurship divisions—on October 26 to begin round two, which was composed of two weeks of an online popular vote that ended on November 9 and influenced the final outcome.

The last round took place on Webex as contestants delivered their final pitches against the other competitors within their division. The winners were selected by a combination of the online popular vote, which counted 40 percent toward their final rankings, and a final round of votes from the judging panel, which counted for 60 percent.

Amanda Murray, a third-year Pharm.D. major, won the $1,000 top prize in the Social Entrepreneurship Division for pitching OneMoreDay, a nonprofit organization she founded to promote mental wellness and lower the rate of suicide, which she said is the 10th leading cause of death in the US.

Founded, in part, to honor a friend who committed suicide, Amanda said, “OneMoreDay is a movement created to remind each of us that we have the strength to make it through to one more day. Another day may be just what we need to see the light among our current challenges.”

Currently, OneMoreDay raises funds through the sale of tee-shirts bearing the name of Amanda’s non-profit, and donates 25 percent of the proceeds to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Amanda said she wants to eventually expand OneMoreDay’s offerings to include programs and resources to promote mental wellness, personal strength, and healing.

Shrikant Barot, a Pharmacology graduate student, took first place in the For-Profit Division for his Novamp Pharma Pack, a pharmaceutical glass packaging material he designed to make injectable medications safer for patients.

“As these types of medications are injected via the current three types of packaging—vials, prefilled syringes, and ampoules—they can be dangerous for a patient if they have any type of microorganism that can get inside of them after they are opened,” Shrikant said. “The Novamp packaging is designed to reduce the occurrence of microorganisms within the injectable medicines.”

Taking the $500 second prize in the For-Profit Division for his Bottle Sense app was Steven Sweet, a senior Business major. He designed the app to connect recycling bottle collectors with consumers and businesses who do not have the time or desire to redeem the bottles at recycling centers. Steven said his goal is to help save the environment by reducing the billions of bottles that go unredeemed.

Evan Felcher, a junior majoring in Public Relations, took third place among the For Profits, and was awarded $250 for his pitching of Palmball, a new game that combines the skills of tennis, volleyball, and pickle ball, and pits single or multiple teams against each other.

Ariel Laura Metayer, a senior who majors in Government and Politics with minors in Africana Studies and French, captured the second prize in the Social Entrepreneurship Division with her pitch for Luminous Lab. Her initiative is collaborating with the New York State Education Department to target low-income, disadvantaged students in middle schools and high schools to receive the educational and mentoring tools they need to succeed in attaining college degrees and in their future chosen fields.

Senior Madison Medard, a Legal Studies major, took third place and won $250 under Social Entrepreneurship for her pitch on The Right to Know Your Rights. She founded the organization as a college-student-driven initiative that focuses on uplifting younger generations, particularly those from low-income communities, to attain their goals through education programs provided at school assemblies, group meetings, and simulations. Madison said, “Our work focuses on impacting the world and generations to come.” 

"Pitch Johnny is one of the main components of the entrepreneurial ecosystem that CCPS is building for St John’s students thanks to which the early stage ideas presented at the competition receive additional support for their development, such as coaching and prototyping through the CCPS design factory," said Luca Iandoli, Associate Dean, Global and Online Programs at The Lesley H. and William L. Collins College of Professional Sciences, and Associate Professor, Division of Computer Science, Mathematics, and Science.

Learn more about how to become an investor in Pitch Johnny.