Miller Place Students are Successful Entrepreneurs

Students excel at Long Island Regional Trade Show and Business Plan Competition

Thirty-nine students in Mr. Thomas Frank’s Virtual Enterprise class at Miller Place High School excelled at the Long Island Regional Trade Show and Business Plan Competition. Students were tasked with either setting up a business to sell their products at a trade show or pitching a business idea to Angel Investors.

“Our Virtual Enterprise students did an amazing job and were part of a very successful field trip. Everyone who participated represented Miller Place with pride and enthusiasm and exceptional skill,” said Superintendent of Schools Seth Lipshie. “Congratulations to all of the students who participated at the trade show for the professionalism and passion they demonstrated while promoting their ideas to investors.”

The Deja VR business set up by student CEO Gianna Benavides is a virtual reality company that sells headsets with a wide variety of games, sports, music, history and travel options. Gianna’s company took home the silver trophy in the website competition.  Website creator for Deja VR, Salome Davoudiasl, commented, “the company I am a part of made it entertaining to choose an electric color palette for the website. Once the simple mechanics of our website were evaluated, it became an awesome project to work on throughout the course of the school year.”   

Deja VR, which earned $150,000 at the trade show, placed among the top 10 schools on Long Island in the competition, which included 3,000 schools across Nassau and Suffolk County and New York City.

The Sand N’ Shade business, established by student CEO Alexandra DeAmario, sells customized sunglasses, snow goggles, watches and hats. Sand N’ Shade set a school record by selling over $170,000 in merchandise at the trade show.

For more information about the Miller Place School District, please visit the District’s website at www.millerplace.k12.ny.us. To read more about the great things happening in Miller Place schools, visit www.millerplaceinthemedia.com and ‘like’ our Facebook page.

Student business Deja VR took home the silver trophy in the LI Regional Trade Show website competition.
Student business Sand N’ Shade sold over $170,000 in customized sunglasses, snow goggles, watches and hats at the Long Island Regional Trade Show.