May 5, 2008
Michael Wademan, Fleetville, and Bryan Smith, Clarks Summit, students at Penn State Worthington Scranton, hit it big at the recent Great Valley Business Plan Competition.
The junior and sophomore students won first place in the Great Valley Technology Alliance's annual competition, and in doing so, took home the grand prize of $20,000 to build their prize-winning project into a new local business.
Their project, Modeling International, is a modeling magazine in which all content is community generated by local models, photographers and graphic artists. Modeling International hosts the articles, pictures, poetry and other artistic submissions, as well as models' portfolios, on a website, while also producing a print magazine.
In addition to the grand prize, the two students turned entrepreneurs will also receive about $30,000 in in-kind services, such as office space in a local business incubator, printing, payroll and legal assistance, as they start their business.
Modeling International was one of 19 regional projects submitted to the competition, which is run by the Great Valley Technology Alliance, which has offices in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. This was the sixth Great Valley Business Plan Competition.