Photo Courtesy of SHU Pictured are winners from last year's Pirates Pitch Competition.
Seton Hall University is holding a Pirates Pitch Competition for high school students.
Jeffrey Liu was the winner of last year’s Pirates Pitch competition.
High school students with a unique business idea are invited to share it with Seton Hall University at the 2025 Pirates Pitch Competition for the chance to win cash and scholarship money.
Participants are initially asked to submit an original business idea in 350 words or less via a registration form on the Seton Hall University website or a YouTube video pitch of three minutes or less.
Participants will present their idea to a panel of judges for the chance to win a $2,500 prize and a scholarship to Seton Hall. The deadline for applications is Oct. 22.
The idea for the competition came from Susan Scherreik, who joined Seton Hall University in 2003 as the founding director of the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) in the Stillman School of Business. Under Scherreik’s leadership, CIE created the Pirates Pitch Startup Competition for Seton Hall students, as well as Pirates Pitch, which is open to all high school students.
“We get applications from all over the country, 150 to 250 applications every year,” Scherreik said.
The submissions should say what problem the product or service solves, how it will make money, who are the customers, who is the competition and how is this product or service better than the competition.
Ten finalists will be selected in early November and invited to present their business ideas to a panel of judges from Seton Hall University on campus.
The first place winner receives a $2,500 cash prize plus a $10,000 scholarship to attend Seton Hall University ($2,500 annually). All other finalists will receive a $4,000 scholarship to attend Seton Hall University ($1,000 annually).
People are invited to come and watch the finals, which will be held on campus, Nov. 21, starting at 3 p.m. There will be an Audience Choice Award winner selected by audience members voting for their favorite student finalist with the winning finalist being awarded $300.
The competition teaches high school students entrepreneurship basics and idea generation and recognizes and rewards students with outstanding entrepreneurial know-how. Current high school sophomores, juniors and seniors with a GPA of 3.0 or better are eligible to participate.
Entrepreneur education is the fastest growing area of college education, according to Scherreik.
“Younger students are very creative,” Scherreik said. “They come up with wonderful ideas. From the beginning, we always had wonderful ideas from students.”
Several past winners are currently operating their own business now, using social media and other internet channels to market their products.
This is the eleventh year for the high school competition though the school has a similar contest just for Seton Hall students that is 16 years old.
Pictured are winners from last year’s Pirates Pitch Competition.
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