On December 5th, The Village School hosted its first annual Shark Tank event, organized by Village Admissions, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship Program Director, Christine Galib. The students of the program shared their business pitches in a Shark Tank-style environment and tried to convince the tough “investors”, Katherine Brewer, Carl Newman, and Gillian Richardson, to invest in their business.

To qualify, students presented their business pitches in front of their class and another set of Shark Tank-style judges. Only select cohorts (a group of students who work together to achieve a particular goal) were chosen to participate. After several rehearsals and revisions, six qualifying cohorts were ready for an exciting yet anxious Wednesday evening.

“I was very impressed with everything about the Shark Tank event,” Galib said. “Everyone came together – our admissions team, our marketing team, our sound and technology team, our sharks, and of course our students. The event was wildly successful. One of the most inspirational things to watch was that students showed every skill we learned in the class, especially when the power went out for 20 seconds and they just kept going without missing a beat.” 

In the end, all six cohorts stood together on-stage, and the winners were announced. The cohort SAY, featuring Anna Zhu, Yasmeen Zahed, and Swati Kumar, and their product “Sensory Sleep” as well as The Visionaries, featuring Omar Abouelazm, Alexander Le Cong, Aman Kumar, Jaylen Williams, and Xue (Sherry) Chi, with their product, “Boxed”, won the Shark Tank event. Cohort A²DJ, featuring Ashley Turnage, Anastacia Yefimenko, Duaa Naveed, and Julia Pereira, alongside their restaurant Matryoshka, received Honorable Mention.