Enderun has found a new champion of its annual The Next Bright Idea business pitch challenge. Held last February 10 at The Tent at Enderun, McKinley Hill, Bonifacio Global City, the finals event awarded EmpoweRice, the team from Xavier School Nuvali, the grand prize of Php50,000.00.

Now on its sixth year, The Next Bright Idea is a competition organized by Enderun Colleges for young aspiring entrepreneurs in high school. Teams of 3 to 5 students are tasked to come up with their respective business ideas and present a three-minute elevator pitch to a panel of judges and a live audience.

Prior to the pitch, the teams were required to attend an Entrepreneurship Master Class moderated by seasoned professionals and mentors from Enderun. There they learned the ropes on how to create and execute their business proposals. Once the sessions were done, all teams then moved on to the next round, where the faculty of Enderun’s Business and Entrepreneurship Departments weighed the feasibility and potential of each submitted project and voted on the ten most promising ones. Those who made the shortlist were the ones that competed in the finals.

This year, the team from Xavier School Nuvali took home the crown with their project called EmpoweRice. Following the competition’s theme of “Sustainability: Ideas That Make a Difference”, EmpoweRice features the concept of a machine that turns rice husks into fuel via a treatment and filtration process. With local farmers as the main target, the project aims to help minimize the agricultural waste from the rice harvest while providing an alternative source of fuel. Teams from Jubilee Christian Academy (DissOrb) and De La Salle Zobel (Hydrovac) placed as first and second runner up respectively.

As champions, the EmpoweRice team—comprised of students Rico Chung, Ma. Jevie Cruz, Bernadette Lasaten, Justin Ryan Patacsil, and Patrick Inciong—received a trophy and a cash prize. Meanwhile, runner up teams received a Php20,000 and Php10,000 cash prize respectively.