{"id":468989,"date":"2026-06-09T20:49:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T20:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/468989\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T20:49:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T20:49:41","slug":"local-student-wins-10000-to-grow-sunshine-sitters-at-entrepreneurship-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/468989\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Student Wins $10,000 to Grow Sunshine Sitters at Entrepreneurship Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ella McKerrocher, of Rome, recently won $10,000 from the Henry and Clara Ford Endowed Fund for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for her business, Sunshine Sitters.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wctimber.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"wc timber\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wc-timber.jpg\" alt=\"\"   width=\"726\" height=\"126\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McKerrocher, a Berry College management major, competed for the prize at The PITCH, an annual entrepreneurship competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The PITCH is inspired by the show \u201cShark Tank,\u201d and Berry students present their ideas to compete for funding of their entrepreneurial endeavor. Whether working as an individual or team, The PITCH gives students chance to learn what entrepreneurship means and what it takes to advance an idea towards reality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the course of the competition, three rounds took place, where students pitched to various panels of experts. The winners in addition to McKerrocher are:<\/p>\n<p>William Hindman, of Silver Creek, received $6,000 from the Bettyann O\u2019Neill Innovation Fund\u00a0for his business, WB Custom Upholstery.Miriam Miller Hughes, of Rome,\u00a0received $3,000 from the Chair\u2019s Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurship\u00a0for her business, Mama Monicas. \u00a0Hughes graduated in May.Ian Hughes, of Ingram, Texas, received $2,500 from the Jeff Jahn NINJA Fund\u00a0for his business, Tenderbuck. GradAlexis Galimore, of Cartersville,\u00a0received $1,500 for her business, Threadline.Davis Henson, of Hoschton, received $1,000 for his business, Fat Head Hats.Giovanni Cordero, of Stone Mountain, Asiel Castillo Campos, of Norcross and Jake Stout, of Canton, each received $677 for their business, Pieces of Berry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The competition is sponsored by the Center for Student Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Development. For more information about Berry\u2019s entrepreneurship program, please visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.berry.edu\/c-seed\/entrepreneurship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/www.berry.edu\/c-seed\/entrepreneurship\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mulkeydumpsterrental.com\/category\/dumpsters\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"AISelect_20260119_183803_Gallery\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AISelect_20260119_183803_Gallery.jpg\" alt=\"\"   width=\"1080\" height=\"239\"\/><\/a><br style=\"clear: both; display: block; float: none;\"\/><a href=\"https:\/\/hrblock.csod.com\/client\/hrblock\/default.aspx?ReturnUrl=https%3a%2f%2fhrblock.csod.com%2fcatalog%2fCustomPage.aspx%3fid%3d20000367%26tab_page_id%3d20000367%26tab_id%3d20000505\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"hrblock long 11326\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/hrblock-long-11326.jpg\" alt=\"\"   width=\"724\" height=\"87\"\/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/gaautobrokers.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Georgia Auto Brokers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Georgia-Auto-Brokers.jpg\" alt=\"\"   width=\"946\" height=\"137\"\/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/armucheepharmacy\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Armuchee Pharmacy new\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Armuchee-Pharmacy-new.jpg\" alt=\"\"   width=\"853\" height=\"141\"\/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etix.com\/ticket\/v\/17173\/cedartown-performing-arts-center??performance_id=4279751&amp;country=US&amp;language=en\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"cedartown arts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/cedartown-arts.jpg\" alt=\"\"   width=\"975\" height=\"138\" style=\"display: inline-block;\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ella McKerrocher, of Rome, recently won $10,000 from the Henry and Clara Ford Endowed Fund for Innovation and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[138,336,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-468989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}