Meet the Winners of the 2020 Pitch for Good Competition

May 26, 2020

The results of the first-ever Future Founders Pitch for Good competition are in!

Our first-ever 100% virtual program for Chicago high school students, the Pitch for Good Challenge brought together problem solvers, leaders, and changemakers from across the city to share ideas to help those affected by this unprecedented economic and public health crisis.

Throughout the month of April, participants navigated a series of self-guided lessons teaching them about ideation, customer discovery, and prototyping. Throughout these lessons, students built and refined their ideas, and ultimately shared them via 90 second video pitches, which were reviewed and scored by a panel of teachers, entrepreneurs, and local business leaders.

After combing through hundreds of fantastic pitches showcasing a broad range of amazingly innovative ideas, judges ultimately selected our two winners: Ethan Switall (Grand Prize Winner) and Sabine Ramirez (First Runner-Up). Read on to learn more about these two, and the ideas that earned them their victory.

Grand Prize Winner ($350 Cash Prize & $2,000 College Scholarship)

Ethan Switall
Senior, Whitney Young High School
Founder of AlumniAid: An app that connects college students displaced by COVID-19 with housing, employment, and mental health resources offered by their school’s alumni.

“Before the Pitch for Good Challenge, I never considered myself to be capable of creating a business to solve urgent real-world problems. Through brainstorming and helpful prompts, I pushed myself in ways I never imagined and changed my perspective on entrepreneurship.”

First Runner-Up ($250 Cash Prize)

Sabine Ramirez
Junior, Epic Academy High School
Founder of COVID Check: An app that uses data to visualize the COVID-19 pandemic on a neighborhood and community level.

“Just know that when an opportunity arises, take a chance because you never really know where your creativity and knowledge can take you.”