The Governor’s Conference on Business is held annually to provide entrepreneurs with resources and networking opportunities. This year’s business pitch competition was reserved for licensed Nevada companies that are less than 2 years old and haven’t generated more than $250,000 of gross revenue a year.
A representative from each of the 10 companies had to make a compelling presentation within two minutes and answer the judge’s questions in three minutes.
Colin Seale, Teach For America corps member & Founder | CEO of thinkLaw, works tirelessly to make sure critical thinking is no longer a luxury good. He seized the opportunity to get another step closer to reaching his goal during at the Governor’s Conference on Business Competition. Colin delivered an award winning pitch in front of a panel of five judges, Governor Sandoval of Nevada and hundreds of onlookers at the Rio Hotel and Casino on September 30, 2016.
He took home both the $1,000 People’s Choice award and the $5,000 first-place award that includes $11,000 of in-kind financial and information technology assistance.
Colin plans to use his prizes to attend conferences, promote his company and build out a model to help teach critical thinking to children in younger grade levels. He explained to the judges that, “It’s hard to teach critical thinking because it’s hard to find the time to teach it, and it’s hard to train educators to effectively teach it and it’s hard to teach it to all sorts of students.”
thinkLaw helps teachers develop critical-thinking skills in their students, something he learned while becoming a lawyer. It’s an important skill, he said, but one rarely taught to students outside of law school.
The other competitors at the Governor’s Conference on Business were:
• Brain2Bot, a toy with artificial intelligence aimed at both young and middle-school aged children.
• CDL Focus, that rents trucks to help people retake their commercial driver’s license test.
• Chefery, a service that delivers chef-prepared meals.
• Falcon Nano, an inventor of an electronic chip for wireless communications.
• Remmedy, whose product helps people be sure they are taking the right doses of their medications at the right time.
• Lip Smacking Foodie Tours, which offers guided tours of downtown Las Vegas restaurants.
• Healthybyte, which connects low-income people with resources to help them make healthy lifestyle choices.
• LRT Sunshield Sunscreen 3000, which makes a motorized remote-controlled sun shade for cars and other vehicles.
What is thinkLaw?
We know that critical thinking is hard to teach, but it remains one of the most important 21st century skills. New tests require students to apply critical thinking to challenging questions. But critical thinking is still a luxury good: less than 1 of 10 educators teach it and that educator is often at an elite school or only teaches critical thinking to elite students.
thinkLaw closes this gap by helping educators teach critical thinking to ALL students through 25 engaging, Standard Aligned lessons based on real-life legal cases. These cases tap into students’ inherent sense of justice and fairness and empower students to do the heavy lifting through critical thinking tasks usually reserved for law students. thinkLaw’s comprehensive program includes teacher guides and tools to allow them to deliver lessons with under 20 minutes of prep time, student workbooks, and 3 sessions of virtual coaching.
To speak to a thinkLaw representative about how you can launch thinkLaw at your school or organization, click here.
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