Tell City students advance to Indiana entrepreneurship challenge

Two Tell City business-class teams will head to Newburgh on April 17 for the Southwest Indiana Regional Competition of the 2026 STARTedUP Challenge, giving Perry County students a chance to turn classroom ideas into a statewide pitch for cash, mentorship and a path beyond graduation.

Tell City-Troy Township School Corp said the qualifiers are Product #1, Hand in Hand, created by Leah Hollinden, Chloe Lindauer and Isla Epple, and Product #2, Stone and Flame, created by Paige McCoy and Alyssa Patrick. The district described STARTedUP as Indiana’s largest and longest-running high school entrepreneurship competition and wished the students luck as they show their creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.

The regional event will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. CST at Kramer Pavilion at Deaconess in Newburgh. Southwest Indiana’s Region 1 field will include 11 student teams, and the competition will send one regional winner to the finals along with $1,000 per student for teams of up to three members. Three wildcard teams from across Indiana will also move on.

For Tell City families, the bigger value is less about the award check than the skills behind it. STARTedUP puts students in a setting that rewards pitching, teamwork, budgeting, marketing and problem-solving, all skills that connect directly to local jobs, small business ownership and college business programs. The foundation says finalists receive mentorship and bootcamp-style support, which makes the competition more than a one-day contest.

The 2026 challenge, now in its ninth year and formerly known as Innovate WithIN, has grown sharply. STARTedUP Foundation said 1,174 teams submitted ventures this year, up from 515 in 2025, and student participation rose from 979 to 2,162. The competition also expanded from six regions to seven with the addition of Region 7, West Central Indiana.

Tell City Jr.-Sr. High School has already tied business classwork to local issues. Mrs. Kleeman’s business class was featured by the STARTedUP Foundation after students attended a community meeting on development of the old hospital site in town, showing that the program is not limited to theory. It is putting Tell City students in front of real problems, real audiences and a statewide pipeline that can carry their ideas from Perry County classrooms to Butler University, where the finals are scheduled for June 12.