The Diamond Challenge was created through Horn Entrepreneurship, a cornerstone for entrepreneurial activity based at the University of Delaware. Because of the generous contributions made by Paul and Linda McConnell, we are able to provide high school students around the world with opportunities to experience entrepreneurship first hand. We empower students in high school and beyond through entrep
reneurial education and enrichment opportunities in order for students to create, capture, and deliver value from new ideas, regardless of their future career path. The Diamond Challenge and the Youth Entrepreneurship Summit are part of the Paul and Linda McConnell Youth Entrepreneurship Education Initiative. Since its foundation in 2012, the Diamond Challenge has reached more than 3,500 students from 155 schools worldwide and has recently been ranked one of the top 29 best international business plan competitions by Alpha Gamma, a business portal for millennials. The competition provides an impactful, hands-on opportunity where participants learn a repeatable process for coming up with new ideas and building a business or social enterprise like a scientist. By working with the members of their team to devise, submit, and pitch a concept for a new business or social innovation, participants develop their creative, problem solving, and communication skills. There are two series of state-of-the-art curriculum videos to support participants who are competing in the business concept and social innovation tracks of the competition: From Ideas to Action and Venturing for Good. Instructional guides, which provide discussion questions, classroom activities, and links to supplemental resources are also available on our website. Teams' written concepts, pitch decks, and pitches are scored by judges; Top teams earn a share of the $100,000 prize pool.
