Arrupe Jesuit High School seniors take home entrepreneurial prize at Regis

A toy that plays to the remaining senses of blind and deaf dogs came out on top in a competition that showcases the entrepreneurial skills of students at Arrupe Jesuit High School. The event, hosted at Regis, was the conclusion of a business course created in partnership with the University. Each student who participates in the course earns college credit.

The winning team — made up of Arrupe seniors Julissa Fernandez, Krystal Martinez, Cristina Ramirez and Lorenzo Segovia — presented a panel of judges with Yum Dum, a toy with sensory components intended to help blind and deaf dogs stay active. The team will go on to compete on May 3 in the Regis Innovation Challenge, a Shark Tank-style entrepreneurial competition that allows business owners the chance to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges and walk home with cash intended to help their grow their businesses.

The toy, a rubber stick, is made up of three components that interact with dogs’ remaining senses, with sections of taste, smell and touch. As the team shared with judges and the audience, of the 90 million dogs in the United States, roughly 24 million have visual impairments. Another nine million have hearing loss. Many of those owners struggle to find toys for their pets, the team said.

“The Yum Dum aims to target the underrepresented demographic of dog owners who own blind and deaf dogs,” Martinez said.

At the conclusion of the event, the students said they were excited to move onto the Innovation Challenge.

“I'm feeling very excited for our next journey to begin,” Ramirez said. “I can’t wait to see the future of what our business might be.”

Regis Prof. Ken Sagendorf, the director of the Innovation Center, said the students have already made an impact.

“This really is meant to be a celebration,” he said. “Businesses make the world go. They solve your problems. They make you feel a certain way. And so, to be up there and pushing a business that is going to make people feel certain ways, solve people's problems, that will make the world a better place. 

As part of the event, the team faced steep competition from two teams of Arrupe students. One team presented a panel of judges with Book With Me, a company that helps high school students who run small businesses book appointments and collect payments. The other team pitched Vega, which uses artificial intelligence to help small businesses draft marketing materials, including blog and social media posts.

Additionally, this year, the event welcomed students from Compass Academy, a Denver middle school, to participate in the competition, giving them the chance to start thinking about business well before high school. Three teams of middle school students presented their business ideas to the judging panel.

Ruben Martinez, a Regis affiliate faculty member, alumnus and Arrupe’s director of marketing, said the competition was the culmination of many hours of hard work by the students. For the students, the hard work will pay off. Each Arrupe student will walk away with college credit transferrable to most any university in the United States.

“Skills they’re learning as entrepreneurs will serve them, whether they become entrepreneurs or not,” he said. “They can become nurses, they can become teachers, that can become whatever, but they’re learning how to communicate, how to present their ideas.”

Google strategist Maria Bruno, who served as a judge during the event, said the competition gives students the opportunity to create their own futures — especially considering that jobs they could have in 10 years might not exist yet.

“It's up to them to create them,” Bruno said. “It's cool to have the foundation where they get to create the rules that they're going to be building for themselves.”

Fellow judge Casey Parker, CEO of KT Connections, agreed. 

“We can serve ourselves with ideas that we have,” he said. “You can work for yourself, not for somebody else, which is huge.”