GROVE CITY — Some of Butler County’s future business professionals had their first taste of pitching business ventures to a panel of judges.

The Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV hosted a pitch contest for students enrolled in the Entrepreneurship Academy, which is taught by Butler County Community College.

There are 13 Butler County students along with another 22 enrolled in Mercer County’s program, which is in its second year.

The 13 Butler County students come from Knoch, Slippery Rock, Butler, Moniteau, Mars and Seneca Valley high schools. These students take two-hour business classes at BC3 Monday through Thursday, according to Christen Dunn, program instructor with MIU IV.

At Thursday’s competition, 16 teams from both Butler and Mercer counties presented two-minute pitches to five judges including Nadine Tripodi, who was named Butler County’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015.

The winning team was two students from Mercer County, Thomas Flanders and Angie Jacoway, who won $200.

They pitched a business concept for a nonprofit called “Peer Talks,” which Flanders said came as a response to the recent suicide of a friend.

Peer Talks would provide an outlet for students other than school guidance counselors, who may not have the time to get to know every student’s situation. The nonprofit would provide psychologists and therapists to give teenagers more proactive mental health support, providing all of the same confidentiality as traditional therapy.

The second place team had three students from Karns City High School, Amanda Fichter, Emily Lucas and Hanna Freiters. They won $100 for a concept called the cell phone seat belt.

Freiters presented the gadget as a solution to a dangerous situation that a friend of hers recently had. When Freiters’ friend was in a car accident, the friend could not find her cell phone.

“When we were asked what problem our product would solve, it was just a coincidence that my friend was in a car accident and could not find her phone to call for help,” Freiters said.

“She actually had to put her sweat shirt on her hand and dig through the broken glass to find her phone. In many occasions, the contents of the car are thrown around, making it hard to find your phone.”

But Fichter, Lucas and Freiters had the solution: a pouch that attaches to the driver’s seat belt and holds the phone in place.

Another notable pitch was from Seneca Valley High School’s Hayley Mercer and Mars High School’s Zac Sicher.

Mercer and Sicher pitched Second Life, a nonprofit company that would address food insecurity for low-income homes by selling food that retailers would normally discard.

“This year alone, 133 billion pounds of food will be thrown away in the United States and over 13 billion pounds of that will be thrown away by grocery stores,” Sicher told the judges.

“Some of these items are thrown away because of approaching expiration dates, but a vast majority are thrown away simply because new products keep coming in and out of the store on a day-to-day basis.”

Second Life would buy those products and sell them at a lower price, making it affordable for low-income families or even people who are homeless, Sicher said.

A similar nonprofit company was pitched by Slippery Rock High School students Luca Lemnij and Shane Slater: Suit It Up.

For Lemnij and Slater, the homelessness problem can be addressed by helping those people find jobs.

“For the 3.5 million homeless people nationwide, getting hired is an increasingly difficult process,” Lemnij said. “First impressions are a major part of this, and looking presentable is crucial in first impressions ...

“When ex-homeless people were asked what two items helped them escape the poverty loop the most, the most prevalent answers were suits and bathroom supplies.”

Lemnij and Slater decided their company would focus on providing suit rentals to homeless people to help them find a new job.

According to Anthony Conti, an educational consultant with the MIU IV, the business pitch program aims to fill a gap in the business education.

“Share your ideas with a group of professionals, and do it well,” Conti said of the contest’s goals. “We just kind of feel there is a need to build entrepreneurship in the region, and this is one of the ways we’re doing that.”

Tripodi said the program is needed, not only in Butler County but nationwide.

“It’s encouraging to see that there are programs to promote and teach business concepts,” she said.

The students of BC3’s Entrepreneurship Academy have a final project, which includes a five-minute business proposal. Those projects will be presented to another panel of judges on May 4 at Grove City College.