Bold ideas from two local students are among just 60 semifinalist submissions selected from over 3,700 nationwide to pitch at the Mott Million Dollar Challenge, June 15-16 in downtown Flint.
FLINT, Mich., June 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Two students from Missouri have been selected as semifinalists in the Mott Million Dollar Challenge, a national pitch competition for K-12 students.
More than 5,300 young people from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. submitted over 3,700 business ideas and social solutions to the Challenge. From those entries, 1,500 submissions were selected in the first round. Now, the creators behind the top 60 ideas are advancing to compete at a live national event in Flint, Michigan, this month.
The Missouri semifinalists and their ideas are:
Hilingual Board Game — Eric Diao (6th Grade, 4H, business pitch): A multilingual board game that teaches players about different languages and cultures through trivia, conversation and interactive gameplay designed to connect people from around the world.
House Helper — Claudia Schaefer (7th Grade, Hixson Middle School, business pitch): An AI-powered home camera system that helps people quickly locate misplaced items by searching recorded footage and identifying where objects were last seen.
As semifinalists, each project will be awarded $5,000. The students will pitch live in front of judges during the final competition June 15-16 in Flint.
Funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation as part of its centennial celebration, the Mott Million Dollar Challenge is administered by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) in collaboration with VentureLab, Young Entrepreneur Institute (YEI), the Afterschool Alliance, Collaborative Communications and the 50 State Afterschool Network. The Challenge is designed to shine a light on entrepreneurship education as a meaningful way to help students build skills they need to navigate and shape the future.
Learn more about the Mott Million Dollar Challenge and explore semifinalist ideas at https://mottmillion.org/60-semifinalist-pitches/.
Contact:
Jen Peters
peters@collaborativecommunications.com
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SOURCE Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
