High school students from across New Jersey — including participants from Newark’s Link Community Charter School, Chatham High School, John P. Stevens High School, and The Pingry School — recently gathered to collaborate, ideate, and pitch original startup ideas before a panel of industry leaders at the inaugural 2025 Entrepreneurathon.
Hosted by National Young Leaders Association (NYLA), in collaboration with New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), the full-day innovation challenge aimed at empowering the next generation of high school entrepreneurs featured hands-on workshops in business modeling, market validation, and social impact strategy, followed by live pitch sessions judged by executives and entrepreneurs.
“This event was not about launching startups,” Samaya Shah, founder and executive director of NYLA and a student at The Pingry School said. “It was about bringing together students from all backgrounds — public, private, and charter — to collaborate, share ideas, and learn the fundamentals of starting a new business. NYLA’s mission is to show every young person that they belong in the world of entrepreneurship.”
NJIT was the perfect partner for this event given its focus on serving as an Innovation Nexus.
Speakers included NJIT alumnus Nick DeNichilo, former President and CEO of Mott MacDonald North America, and Aliza Mujahid, CEO of DermaMech and NJIT Innovation Fellow. Participating students presented ventures ranging from AI-powered tutoring platforms to the next generation of security platforms, underscoring NYLA’s core mission: to democratize access to entrepreneurial education and connect young leaders through hands-on, high-impact programming.
Team Travella won the competition for its all-in-one travel companion app, integrating features from Exepedia, Yelp, and Google Maps.
