ESU Student Named Semifinalist in 6th Annual PA State System Business Plan Competition

Posted by: Elizabeth Richardson on February 23, 2017, No Comments

East Stroudsburg University senior Tammy Tuckey was selected as one of 17 semifinalists in the 6th Annual Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Student Business Plan Competition. Tuckey, a business management major, submitted her business, The Tiara Talk Show, a YouTube channel talk show featuring actors, composers and cast members of the Walt Disney Company or its subsidiaries, in the competition. More than 200 students from across the Commonwealth competed in this year’s competition. Student finalists will be selected in early March and the winners will be announced at the Business Plan Awards Ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, April 5, 2017 at the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg.

This is the third year that Tuckey was selected as a semifinalist in the competition. “The talk show idea came to me after noticing there were not many female-directed Disney themed podcasts,” Tuckey said. “Winning the competition would help to expand advertising for the show.” Tuckey is graduating a year early and plans to continue The Tiara Talk Show after graduation.

The business plan competition is hosted by the Pennsylvania State System of High Education and is open to the 107,000 students enrolled in the State System universities, which include: Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester. Students compete for the chance of winning three cash prizes: $10,000-First Place, $5,000-Second Place and $2,500- Third Place. The main focus of the competition is to create an environment of business growth and entrepreneurship across the Commonwealth. State System university students support the Commonwealth and are likely to stay in the area after they graduate. Many previous student business plan winners have gone on to the launch their businesses in Pennsylvania.

Since the launch of the competition in 2012, ESU student Jonathan Weber, computer science/computer security major, won first place and $10,000 for his company edentified. In 2013, Thomas Rounsville, ESU biological sciences major, won second place and $5,000 for Integrative Wildlife Forensics, and in 2016, Blaise Delfino, speech-language pathology major, won first place and $10,000 for Fader Plugs, LLC.

In addition to Tammy Tuckey, 17 ESU students submitted ideas in the 2016-17 competition. For more information about ESU’s participation in the PASSHE Business Plan Competition contact Mike Gildea at 570-422-7953 or email mgildea1@esu.edu.