ALLIANCE, Ohio – Students in the University of Mount Union’s entrepreneurship minor recently worked with Marlington Middle School eighth grade students as part of their “Duke Tank” pitch competition on Wednesday, October 31.

The Marlington eighth grade business class participates in this competition every year, and has done so for the past three years. The project is adapted from Mount Union’s “Raider Tank,” which is based off of the successful ABC show Shark Tank. The course is taught by Mount Union alumna Tierney (Teeters ‘89) Bratten. 

Students identify a problem in their lives and work towards a solution developing additional skills like presentation, teamwork and an understanding of business principles. They then pitch to the college student judges in a tight 3-minute format. 

The student judges from Mount Union were Gabriella Cataloni ’22, of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, AJ Hammond ’22, of Hermitage, Pennsylvania and Emilio Martinez ’20, of Pinellas Park, Florida.

The winning team of Ethan Swiger, Jayden Lost, and Lucas Mayes had an idea to help people keep their indoor plants alive. Other ideas were a robot mower and an auto-feeder for pets. The members of the winning team received a Chipotle gift card sponsored by INCUBOX, the business incubator in Alliance.