Get In Touch

Elevator Pitch 2015 Winners Announced

February 27, 2015 | By Champlain News
Top E-Pitch Winners

The winners of the 2015  Elevator Pitch Competition have been announced, highlighting a strong showing from all 18 competitors in the 8th annual event.

Since 2007, the Elevator Pitch has provided Champlain students with the opportunity to learn and practice the skill of professional communication in a stimulated environment. Participants enter a fictional elevator and pitch a business proposition to an executive, know as the "suit." In 90 seconds, the competitor must introduce themselves and their idea to the suit as simply and clearly as possible.
Competitors fall into three categories: Entrepreneur, Job/Internship Seeker, and Non-profit/Social Advocate.  The students are judged by a panel of community leaders, employers and Champlain Alumni on their presentation,onsor  effectiveness and content. The top three winners in each category receive a cash award of $500, $300 and $100 respectfully. The prizes are funded by KeyBank, the event's lead spand is hosted by Tim Kavanagh. The audience also gets to vote for "People's Choice" with each categories winner receiving a $100 gift card to the Farmhouse Restaurant Group.   

This year's winners are:

Non Profits/Social Advocates
1st Place: Amanda Mason, MBA '17
2nd Place: Mollie Kerns, Int'l Business '15
3rd Place: Spencer Owen, MCRM, '16
People's Choice: Callie Browning, Int'l Business '17

Job/Internship Seekers
1st Place: Julian Lopez, Int'l Business & Finance '17
2nd Place: Tito James, Communication '15
3rd Place: Jack Carpenter, Broadcasting & Streaming Media '15
People's Choice: Julian Lopez

Entrepreneurs
1st Place: Christian Shaw, Business Administration '15
2nd Place: Mahmoud Jabari, Communication '15
3rd Place: Matthew Scarzello, Communication '16
People's Choice: Christian Shaw

The other finalist include: Jeffrey Diehl, Katy Maier, Bernard Smigel, Olga Gromova, Caroline McCann, Peter Sulovski, Colleen Lloyd and Leo Wrighton.

Special thanks to the Judges: Hal Colston, Nichole Egan '14, Gayle Critchlow Gardner, Chris Kirkpatrick, Peter A Kranz '95, Amy Mailloux and Kyla Sternlieb; and the "Suits" Dr. Wes Balda, Dr. Laurie Quinn and Moneer Greenbaum. 

Epitch group shot

Read the Champlain Crossover Story about Elevator Pitch by Joseph Oliveri 

Founded in 1878, Champlain College is a small, not-for-profit, private college in Burlington, Vermont, with additional campuses in Montreal, Canada, and Dublin, Ireland. Champlain offers a traditional undergraduate experience from its beautiful campus overlooking Lake Champlain and over 90 residential undergraduate and online undergraduate and graduate degree programs and certificates. Champlain's distinctive career-driven approach to higher education embodies the notion that true learning occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain College is included in the Princeton Review's The Best 384 Colleges: 2019 Edition. For the fourth year in a row, Champlain was named a "Most Innovative School" in the North by U.S. News & World Report's 2019 "America's Best Colleges,” and a “Best Value School” and is ranked in the top 100 “Regional Universities of the North” and in the top 25 for “Best Undergraduate Teaching.” Champlain is also featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges for 2019 as one of the "best and most interesting schools" in the United States, Canada and Great Britain and is a 2019 College of Distinction. For more information, visit champlain.edu.