Creativity and Energy: Entrepreneurial Hackathon 2024

On Saturday, September 7, the Collins Room buzzed with creativity and energy as the Frank & Eileen Accelerator Program for the Leaders of Tomorrow hosted its annual Entrepreneurial Hackathon. This exciting event brought together nearly 30 students from Grades 7 through 11, challenging them to tackle real-world problems through innovative thinking and rapid problem solving.

Open to both Marlborough students and the greater Los Angeles community, the Hackathon provided a unique opportunity for young entrepreneurs to engage with pressing societal issues. Students were divided into teams, each assigned one of five critical areas: social justice, fashion, the environment and climate change, health and wellness, and food and beverage. Their mission? To work together and develop actionable solutions to these challenges. 

Each group identified and defined a specific problem (or problems) to solve, brainstormed solutions, created prototypes of those solutions, and prepared to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. The room was a hub of activity as teams transformed cardboard, scrap materials, foam, and pipe cleaners into tangible prototypes. Within each area of focus, the teams landed on more specific topics on which to focus. These included childcare, fast fashion, clean drinking water, health and wellness, and access to health food. In just four hours, these students created remarkable solutions, including:
–– CareFree (Social Justice): To address the challenge of accessing affordable childcare, the team envisioned an app that connects free babysitters to single or working parents, with the sitter’s time counting towards community service hours.
–– Flow Filtration (Environment and Climate Change): Tackling the global issue of access to clean water, this team designed a lightweight, affordable water filtration device that can float and capture clean water.
–– Pop Up Prep (Food and Beverage): To combat food insecurity, this volunteer-run pop-up would provide meal kits with fresh ingredients to communities in need.

After developing their prototypes, the teams pitched their ideas to a panel of judges. The panel included Sun Migliacci, Marlborough’s finance instructor; Cara Moreno, a Marlborough parent and expert in the fields of finance, strategy, and business operations; and Michelle Yee, a Marlborough parent and experience business development executive. The judges evaluated the teams’ three-minute pitch presentations and provided thoughtful feedback on each business idea, offering valuable insights into their successes and areas where there were opportunities for growth. The judges also gave out awards to teams for specific aspects of their project including “pitch perfect,” “need-finding,” innovation, impact, and design.

The event also featured a keynote address from Audrey McLoghlin, Founder of Frank & Eileen. Ms. McLoghlin highlighted her own entrepreneurial journey and her commitment to empowering the next generation of female leaders. Her presence and words of wisdom were inspiring and motivating. 

Reflecting on the event, Lauren Choi ’16, Marlborough’s Entrepreneur in Residence, shared, “I think everyone who attended—parents, guardians, school administrators, and judges alike—were incredibly impressed with the pressing problems the student teams addressed and the high quality solutions they thought of in such a short period of time.” The Entrepreneurial Hackathon not only showcased the students’ creativity and problem-solving skills, but also their awareness of and commitment to addressing real-world issues. By providing a platform for this type of collaborative innovation, the Hackathon fostered skills that will undoubtedly serve these students—and our world—well in their future endeavors.