Through its PNC North Carolina HBCU Initiative, PNC has awarded $5,000 in cash prizes to three student entrepreneurs from three North Carolina historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Jahmir Hamilton, from North Carolina Central University, took home the $2,500 first place prize at last week’s PNC North Carolina HBCU Pitch Competition, hosted at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro. His pitch was entitled “IX Studio: Empowering others through gaming.”
The pitch competition is part of the PNC North Carolina HBCU Initiative that launched last year. The initiative is designed to enrich the future of entrepreneurship and work opportunities for students at the five of the state’s HBCUs – Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, Johnson C. Smith University, North Carolina Central University and Winston-Salem State University.
The PNC Foundation is awarding more than $2 million in grant funding to these institutions over three years to support entrepreneurship resources and programming.
2023 PNC HBCU Pitch Competition
Judged by a multi-disciplinary panel, the pitch competition featured nine student entrepreneur teams from the five HBCUs. The teams were chosen by their respective schools through a series of preliminary pitch competitions. The teams were evaluated on innovation, clarity, comprehensiveness, feasibility, professionalism and “wow” factor.
“Today’s competition provided a forum for North Carolina’s future business leaders to share their unique approaches to entrepreneurship and the creation of innovative products, services and solutions – while demonstrating skills and learnings from entrepreneurship programming and resources made possible through the PNC North Carolina HBCU Initiative,” said Weston Andress, PNC’s regional president for the western Carolinas. “We recognize the participants’ significant efforts to prepare for this competition and congratulate the prizewinners and the faculty members who mentor and support them.”
A team from Elizabeth City State University – comprised of Quante Bishop, Joshua Hunter and Brandon Shaw – finished in second place for their pitch titled “HBCU Ment” and received $1,500.
Winston-Salem State University student Abbas Oumar took home $1,000 in third place for his pitch called “Elofit.”
Judges included Farad Ali, president and CEO of Asociar; Jay Bigelow, the entrepreneur-in-residence for the Council for Entrepreneurial Development in Research Triangle Park; Carolyn Donaldson, a minority business development manager at PNC Bank; Jessie Maxwell, vice president and director of business strategy at Partner Community Capital; and Madison Potter, business solutions office for the Carolina Small Business Development Fund.
“Based on the student presentations we saw today and the meaningful learnings and advancements taking place in these institutions’ classrooms and communities every day, it’s clear that the future is bright for innovation and entrepreneurship in North Carolina,” said Jim Hansen, PNC’s regional president for the eastern Carolinas. “All of us at PNC look forward to seeing these talented students’ contributions and impact to the state’s business landscape and talent pipeline.”
