A majority of high school students are filled with imagination and have a knack for developing creative ideas. However, the process of implementing that idea can be challenging, unless you have some sort of program that guides you through that process. Enter Idea Bounce.

Idea Bounce is a Washington University based program that was started by the Skandalaris Center. In an Idea Bounce, you get to talk about your business idea for two minutes and if the judging panel likes the idea, you will get a grant that helps you start-up your business. However, even though you are not guaranteed to win in an Idea Bounce, you can still benefit from pitching an idea. There are several investors in Idea Bounce, most of whom have organizations to help others develop a business idea. By losing, you won’t get the start-up grant, but you might be able to impress an investor and work with he/she to develop your business.

According to Aimee Zander, who is the community coordinator at Idea Bounce, several high school students have participated at Idea Bounce.
“We have gotten a lot of high school students in the past, which is nice because you have a group that thinks more about the modern era when they create and present their ideas.”

Simone Bernstein, who was a senior at Clayton two years ago, also participated in Idea Bounce, said Zander.
“Simone was awesome. Her idea was about starting up a teen volunteering service. I thought it was a great idea and it really hit off with the judges. She ended up winning.”

Idea Bounce is not just an idea-sharing program. Over the summer, they also helped train at-risk children in entrepreneurship. Out of those kids, some even got to do their own Idea Bounce and start their own businesses.

One of the founders of Idea Bounce, Ken Harrington, has been creating various programs for high school students to get them involved in Idea Bounce.

“Kids, especially high school students, have so many good ideas popping in their heads. It’s a shame when they don’t have access to investors that can help them develop those ideas. Thus, one of our many plans this year is to advertise Idea Bounce to high school students. For starters, we have started to put Idea Bounce stations at high schools, so students can share ideas easily and efficiently,” said Harrington.

“Who knows? Clayton might have one in the future too!”