This month, SAGE concluded its global student entrepreneurship competition. The winners were from China, and they had the chance to use HiLink's online platform along their journey.
ScoreTrack, the winner of the 2021 SAGE World Cup, is made up of 3 members. Members Simon, Eric, and Max designed an app that helps to revitalize youth athletics by making sports affordable and accessible. Their project was very impressive. It's truly astonishing to think that they did this as high school students.
As a partner empowered SAGE China, HiLink had the pleasure of working with ScoreTrack since the beginning of the competition. We got the chance to interview the three young entrepreneurs. The full interview is available to watch at the end of this article.
ScoreTrack: The Winner of the 2021 SAGE World Cup
The three members of ScoreTrack made an impressive mobile application that facilitates all aspects of youth athletics.
From helping young athletes communicate with one another to providing discounted equipment, travel, and membership through partnerships, the app connects young athletes to essential and affordable resources.
The gap between athletes, coaches, and recruiters can now be bridged. These three audiences will all be able to connect with each other on ScoreTrack, providing students worldwide with the opportunity and a fair ranking system to apply and compete on a global level.
"We didn't really start ScoreTrack for the purpose of participating in SAGE, but rather that we started ScoreTrack as a company, or a project on ourselves." As athletes in high school, the members witnessed the educational inequality themselves and wanted to do something about it. They were committed to fully developing this idea and turning it into reality.
They also shared some qualities they believe entrepreneurs should have: passion, a willingness to sacrifice, and being open-minded. The team definitely exhibited these values throughout the whole competition.
The Importance of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is an important skill that isn't appreciated enough. Schools usually treat entrepreneurship as a soft skill rather than something that can bring immense value to students' lives.
Eric stated that "Unfortunately, there aren't any active entrepreneurship courses or classes [at our school]. I think all of us are mostly self-taught, or we mostly just ran with it and relied on each of us and our skills to see us through this venture." He went on to share that while there are student-led entrepreneurship clubs, they can't really compare to getting mentorship.
Due to the neglect or budget constraints, schools don't offer assistance to entrepreneurship very often. This lack of resources can be damaging to young entrepreneurs.
The hard-working students on ScoreTrack did immense research and commit to considerable efforts to grasp entrepreneurial skills. They also took the initiative of reaching out to professionals to learn.
They prove that when students learn about entrepreneurship, amazing things can happen.
How SAGE and HiLink are Helping
SAGE and HiLink have recognized the shortcomings that schools have when it comes to mentoring students about entrepreneurship and connecting them to valuable resources. The interview with ScoreTrack was very eye-opening as it offered a student's perspective on this problem.
That's why SAGE was founded in the first place, to promote entrepreneurship and the skills that come with it. SAGE is on a mission to help create the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders whose creations are going to address the unmet needs of the world.
And that eventually led to a pivotal moment in HiLink's founder's life, when he competed in SAGE and made it as a finalist. Entrepreneurship is a significant value at HiLink, leading to its partnered with SAGE China and customized a platform to empower this year's online competition.
Providing high-quality education resources through technology can change the world.
Through SAGE, students are able to connect with entrepreneurs and learn from them. However, there was no reason for those connections to end abruptly when the competition was over. Students stated that the most valuable lessons they got from SAGE were through comments and advice from judges. They also got the chance to learn from their peers in competing teams.
As the next step, SAGE and HiLink will be partnering again to work on an alumni program. SAGE Alumni will continue connecting with each other and some successful professionals, while younger entrepreneurs will be granted access to valuable resources.
What the Winners Thought About HiLink
HiLink has customized an online platform for the SAGE China Competition to help comprehensively improve the experience of all participants, including contestants, judges, and the host.
The winners of SAGE were kind enough to share their thoughts about the platform and how they were able to use it successfully.
ScoreTrack member Eric shared, "So, in comparison to Zoom, this looks so much more aesthetically pleasing. This presenter function actually is quite wonderful because you get to see one person, and you get to focus on one person. This is a very nice change, so I personally like this."
What's Next
After an inspiring competition, students will be able to return to school with newfound skills. Students will be able to apply these skills to their education or career. Some may even be able to operate the venture they worked on for SAGE.
But no matter where these students choose to apply these skills, they'll go on to do great things. Because when you connect students with great resources, amazing things will happen.
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