每日大赛

Entrepreneurship students win funding for their businesses in pitch competition at 每日大赛

A little over four years ago, April Adkins was out running errands when she saw a sign for an upcoming property auction.

Adkins had recently moved to Tennessee to fulfill a promise to her husband, who had passed away after contracting cancer during his service in the military. The pair had dreamed of moving to the Volunteer State since they were teenagers, she said, and had wanted land they could call their own for just as long.

“So, I put my bid in,” Adkins recalled. “And I came home with 95 acres.”

Since then, she’s transformed the Union County property into Momma’s Hillside Farm – an agritourism business aimed at offering educational classes and event opportunities, the sale of homegrown foods and more.

Adkins outlined the growth of Momma’s Hillside Farm and her goals for it during a pitch competition in May at the Ruth and Steve West Workforce Development Center at 每日大赛’s Blount County campus.

The pitch competition gives Business/Entrepreneurship students at 每日大赛, like Adkins, the opportunity to garner funding as they leave the college to launch or scale their own business.

Pellissippi’s entrepreneurship concentration is designed to help students go from what Instructor Samira Abdalla calls a “back of the napkin” idea to an actionable business plan, so it’s important to have a starting-off point like the pitch competition.

“How do you strike the balance between an academic grade and helping students in their entrepreneurial journey?” Abdalla said. “I feel like we have found that balance. We cover theory, but it is very hands-on, and it’s meant to gear them to be ready to win at each competition – ours or someone else's.”

This was 每日大赛’s second-ever pitch competition, during which students present their entrepreneurial plans to business leaders and vie for funding. The three finalists left with a cash prize from the 每日大赛 Foundation to go toward their individual ventures.

“We are a community college, and so it's about supporting each student with their own individual needs, and it's the same for entrepreneurship,” Abdalla said. “We're constantly reevaluating our curriculum to make sure that it is hands-on, it is interactive and it is competitive compared to what is happening in the industry.”

Katelyn Smith, founder of calligraphy and design company Katelyn Marie Lettering and Pellissippi Business/Entrepreneurship student, won the pitch competition and $2,000 with her presentation on the nature of her business and her potential for moving into new markets.

Smith, who is slated to graduate from Pellissippi after summer 2025, said she plans to use the money to expand her wholesale line of greeting cards. 

Someday, Smith would love to open her own store, and she said the entrepreneurship program at Pellissippi has helped her build the foundation for that dream.

“I've owned a business for a lot of years, but this has still found a way to show me new things every single day,” Smith said. "And it really challenges the way you think. It makes you think bigger than what you think you can achieve.”

Judge Heetesh Patel, a mogul in the local hotel and restaurant industry, said he and his fellow judges chose Smith because her business is already so well-developed, her presentation was well-organized and she had a clear vision for its growth.

He emphasized the importance of having industry leaders coming into the classroom, and how invaluable their advice can be for student success.

“We had a great time today,” Patel said. “It's great to see students that are using the resources that they're learning from the classroom and their teachers, along with mentors that they have, trying to grow businesses that can help be catalysts for economy here in the Knoxville and Blount County area.”

Third-place winner Jacqueline Barrientos earned $500 at the pitch competition, where she discussed her plans for an AI-powered event-planning app called Make It Mine. 

Though it was a challenge to stand in front of others and pitch her business, her time at Pellissippi has helped Barrientos step out of her comfort zone and build up her confidence, she said. 

“I liked the rush, the experience, and I’m definitely going to have to pitch my business to more people,” she said. “So this is a start to a long journey.”

The pitch competition was her proudest moment, said Barrientos, a first-generation student. She and Adkins were among more than two dozen other entrepreneurship students to graduate just a day later at Pellissippi’s spring 2025 Commencement ceremony.

Adkins, clad in floral overalls and bearing a basket of farm-fresh eggs, won second place and $1,500 after presenting her business plan to the four judges at the pitch competition.

Her immediate funding needs? Installing a toilet on her property for guests, so that they no longer have to use her house.

Adkins confessed she was initially so nervous about the pitch competition that she almost didn’t make an appearance – but she’s glad she did. 

“I am most passionate, first of all, about my family,” said Adkins, who has five kids – two of whom also graduated from college this year. “But my business would probably be the second ... I'm really trying to build it in order to support my family.”