Twenty Students Pitch Ideas at the Tulane Innovation Institute Annual YEA! Competition

April 22, 2026

Twenty students from 11 New Orleans-area high schools took the stage on Monday, April 20, 2026, at the Tulane University Innovation Institute's Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) Pitch Competition, presenting business ideas to a panel of judges and competing for more than $4,500 in prize funding.

The Tulane Innovation Institute is in its second year partnering with the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, a national 501(c)(3) that teaches high school students how to start and run businesses-from developing ideas to writing business plans and launching companies. Of the 28 students who completed the program, 20 participated in the final pitch competition.

The event marked the culmination of a 30-week course covering marketing, accounting, legal considerations, website and logo design, public speaking, and pitching. Students also stepped outside the classroom for a field experience to visit First Tee, an organization that provides golf instruction to youth in the community.

Norman Barnum, chief financial officer of LSU New Orleans, and Michelle Jackson, founder of PR Solutions and Tulane Adjunct Professor, led the program, with support from Tulane Innovation Institute team members Jalin Carter and Sharon Goldsmith.

"These students are building businesses rooted in their interests, their communities, and the experiences they want to create for others," said Kimberly Gramm, PhD, David & Marion Mussafer Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer at Tulane's Innovation Institute. "Their creativity, discipline, and willingness to take risks reflect exactly why entrepreneurship resonates so strongly with this generation."

A 2025 nationally representative survey of Generation Z by Culture Co-op, founded by Tulane alum Melissa Lavigne-Delville (MBA '25), found "Entrepreneur" ranks third out of 37 aspirational careers, while "CEO or Corporate Executive" ranks 16th-pointing to a growing preference for building something independently as an alternative to traditional corporate paths.