Dublin, Ohio – Funded by the State of Ohio through the Department of Higher Education and operated as a program of The Ohio Academy of Science, Believe in Ohio is a STEM and entrepreneurship program that teaches students how to commercialize products and services and create business plans that are driven by innovation.
A total of 37 STEM Commercialization and STEM Business Plans were awarded with $277,500 in scholarships at the Believe in Ohio State Competition. These scholarships can only be used to attend an Ohio college, university, or technical college. In 2022, the Believe in Ohio program awarded $468,500 scholarships in total.
“This year’s projects were not only amazing, but also very inspiring”, said Michael E. Woytek, Executive Director for The Ohio Academy of Science. Woytek went on to add, “the Believe in Ohio program provides students with a vision of what’s possible as it broadens and builds critical skills needed to compete in today’s economy. It also provides them with a sense of purpose for pursuing post-secondary opportunities, here in Ohio”.
Believe in Ohio is a free, comprehensive, curriculum-based, STEM and entrepreneurship program for Ohio high school students. The program is designed to create a “Culture of Innovation” and to prepare students to meet the demands of a rapidly changing labor market and become contributors to Ohio’s innovation economy. Believe in Ohio is a program of The Ohio Academy of Science and was collaboratively developed with Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio. For more information about Believe in Ohio, please visit www.believeinohio.org.
Believe In Ohio
2022 State Competition Awardees
School Name and City, Type of Plan, Student Name(s) and Grade(s), Plan Title, Award
Anna High School - Anna
Individual Carly Koverman, 12
Plan Title: SleepRate App
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Bio-Med Science Academy STEM School - Rootstown
Individual Logan Cook, 10
Plan Title: VSBS - Variable Size Box Stacking
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Blanchester High School - Blanchester
Individual Ainsley Whitaker, 11
Plan Title: Electro-Sensors and Cutoff Valves for Toxic Carbon Monoxide Emissions from Motor Vehicles
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Individual Emma Falgner, 11
Plan Title: Thermo Smart Blanket: Temperature Regulated Sleep Tracking Blanket
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Individual Leah Boegeman, 11
Plan Title: Vivid-Corrective Contacts
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Brecksville-Broadview Hts HS- Broadview Hts
Individual Lucas Torres, 11
Plan Title: SoundCube: Your Desktop Recording Studio
Award: STEM Business Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Individual McKenna Mack, 11
Plan Title: X-Perience the Workplace
Award: STEM Business Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Team Audrey Bird, 11 and Emma Caputo, 11
Plan Title: The AirBoot: Ski on Air
Award: STEM Business Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Team Fiona Kumar, 11 and James Patrick, 11
Plan Title: Wrapped
Award: STEM Business Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Team Jacob Roberts, 11, Joshua Ackerman, 11 and Kai Sustersic, 11
Plan Title: H.A.R.P. Glasses
Award: STEM Business Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Canfield High School - Canfield
Individual Jocelyn Zhao, 11
Plan Title: New Tortilla Shape Allows For Greater Burrito Filling Capacity
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $10,000 Scholarship
NIHF STEM HS - Akron
Individual Brendan King, 12
Plan Title: Button Lock
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Individual Charles Murphy, 12
Plan Title: ListTD: The Better To-Do List
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Individual Eleanor Smith, 12
Plan Title: Eleanor's Garden for Good
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Individual Jailah Truitt, 12
Plan Title: Resilient
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Individual Maddox Graham, 12
Plan Title: BetterBee Kit
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Individual Noah Klein, 12
Plan Title: Android Application to Encourage Internships
Award: $2,500 Pitch Video Scholarship
Individual Skylar Bittner, 12
Plan Title: Creating an app to assist in food security
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $5,000 Scholarship
North Canton Hoover High School - North Canton
Individual Ryan Pedone, 9
Plan Title: Cell Phob, an app that prevents people from losing their keys or getting their car keys stolen
Award: STEM Business Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Notre-Dame Cathedral Latin School - Chardon
Team Frank Kroto, 11, Joe Stolarik, 11 and Noah Weber, 10
Plan Title: BioTech Lure Company
Award: STEM Business Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Team Jasmine Abounader, 12, Lia Kimball, 12 and Zoey Daher, 12
Plan Title: The Hydration Guard
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Team Alex Simerale, 12, Eric Remchick, 12 and Nathan Galante, 12
Plan Title: Shoe-Port
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Olmsted Falls High School - Olmsted
Individual Aidan Ciehanoski, 12
Plan Title: Health As A Whole
Award: STEM Business Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Individual Jayden Kleinman, 12
Plan Title: Wellness Walker
Award: STEM Business Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Revere HS - Richfield
Team Anna Freeman, 12 and Elise Jakab, 12
Plan Title: Hooks for Hoodies
Award: STEM Business Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Team Lola Downing, 9 and Sierra White, 9
Plan Title: QuickFlip Lacrosse Stick
Award: STEM Business Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Rutherford B. Hayes High School - Delaware
Individual Adam Fronduti, 11
Plan Title: JazzAssist: a Fusion of a Cultural Artform and Technology
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Upper Arlington High School - Upper Arlington
Individual Mihai Crisan, 12
Plan Title: Development of a Generic Programmable Nanophotonic Processor using Programmable Photonic Integrated Circuits (PPICs) that Outperforms Current Ubiquitous Integrated Circuits (ICs)
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Valley Forge HS - Parma Heights
Individual Alejandro Agosto, 12
Plan Title: Poseidon Car-Side Express
Award: STEM Business Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Individual Kaylee Rauch, 12
Plan Title: Training Track
Award: STEM Business Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Van Wert HS - Van Wert
Team Joshua Reichert, 12 and Robert Spath, 12
Plan Title: Binder Ring Correction
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Team Ian Rex, 12 and Natalie Benner, 12
Plan Title: Improved Shopping Wheel Caster
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $5,000 Scholarship
Team Hunter Sherer, 12 and Keigen Martz, 12
Plan Title: New Spike Design for Cross-Country Shoes
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $10,000 Scholarship
West Geauga High School - Chesterland
Individual Amy Johnson, 12
Plan Title: AUDITION Recording Studio
Award: STEM Business Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Westlake High School - Westlake
Team John Kilroy, 12 and Mahdi Hussein, 9
Plan Title: Quit Stick
Award: STEM Business Plan $10,000 Scholarship
William Mason High School - Mason
Individual Laasya Acharya, 9
Plan Title: Ceres: A Smart Device Utilizing Neural Networks to Detect Fruit Diseases Using Imaging
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $10,000 Scholarship
Team Janu Gadthula, 11 and Tanya Keskar, 11
Plan Title: Clean Energy with an Affordable Hydrogen Fuel Cell
Award: STEM Commercialization Plan $5,000 Scholarship
