Stephanie Glover, owner of Furbaby Bestie Pet Care, promotes professional pet sitting services with her dog … [+]
Small businesses represent the dreams and hard work of Americans, empowering people to build their livelihoods and generate more $16.2 billion in revenue Unfortunately, many small businesses face an uphill battle with limited access to the tools and skills necessary to thrive in a rapidly evolving world where customers are often won over by social media and digital applications.
Aarya Dhru and Veda Swaminathan, co-founders of non-profit organization I3 Foundation, are championing a creative solution through their flagship initiative, the Yo3 Competence—short for Imagine, Innovate and Inspire. Dhru and Swaminathan started the competition as 16-year-old high school students to bring together small businesses that need help bolstering their digital infrastructure and students who need an outlet for their digital genius.
I had the opportunity to speak with Dhru and Swaminathan about the success of the I3 Competition: which has helped approximately 60 small businesses leverage the talent of more than 200 students in the last four years. The young people, now in their 20s, shared why they are so passionate about the competition and shared tips on how small businesses can turn to high school students to help them.
A connection with a purpose
Swaminathan and Dhru began the I3 Competition for the same reason many small business owners started their businesses: “It was a solution to the problems we faced ourselves.”
Aarya Dhru (left) and Veda Swaminatha (right) are recognized as youth leaders at the fifth annual … [+]
Swaminathan adds: “At home, my mother is a business owner and would often ask me for help with her social media or websites. And at school, my peers complained about not having opportunities to make an impact or boost their resume for college because of the pandemic. I realized that if I had the digital skills to help my mom, other children had them too. “This competition felt like a win-win partnership.”
Real work with real impact
Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders and a key goal of the I3 The competition aims to provide students with the opportunity to hone their skills in a real business environment.
“There is a common misconception that high school students are limited to unskilled jobs, but the reality is that they bring invaluable experience in areas such as social media and technology. Since these students grew up using these platforms, they know how to engage an audience and create innovative ideas. They have developed the ability to recognize trends and design strategies that resonate with today’s digital audience. For business owners, this means receiving unique insights and creative solutions that go beyond the ordinary and can help them in the long term,” explains Dhru.
The contest works by partnering each company with a team made up of 3 or 4 high school students. Over a four-month period, high school students and the small business collaborate with students, creating a custom app, website, or social media marketing campaign for the small business. To ensure high-quality results and additional intangible benefits for students, students are matched with a mentor who are typically CEOs/presidents of companies and nonprofits, former entrepreneurs, or partners at Big4 consulting firms.
Mentors share tips to help them with their specific projects (for example, how to best increase SEO for the websites they are creating), as well as more soft skills, such as how to improve their communication skills.
A key benefit is that “these mentors remain in students’ networks forever,” Swaminathan said.
A win-win collaboration
As part of the competition, student teams compete for up to $2,000 in prizes.
this year’s winning collaboration involved a team of four high school students who worked with Furbaby Bestie Pet Care, a Los Angeles-based technology company that matches pet professionals with pets in need. The students developed a “viral formula” for a social media campaign using Instagram Reels. The results were a game-changer for Furbaby, helping them reach 10 million post views and 60k profile views, increasing total video watch time from 17 minutes to nearly 35,000 hours. And they did it all in just under four months.
Two of the team members signed up as paid interns at Furbaby Bestie Pet Care.
Swaminathan and Dhru add that even if a student team doesn’t win the $2,000 prize, they still come out winners.
“Beyond the incredible feeling of doing something good for the community, students are using their experiences as a way to increase their own opportunities for growth. For example, each year, more than 60% of our teams receive formal summer internships and jobs from their business partners or competition judges. And the competition’s alumni ended up at elite universities like Stanford, Harvard, NYU Stern, the University of Pennsylvania, and more.”
“It’s not just about building resumes or gaining work experience,” adds Dhru. “These businesses are deeply personal; They represent people’s lives and stories.”
How to start collaborating
Interested small business owners you can request to be matched with a team of students for a project in 2025. They can complete the registration form in the Yo3 Competence website. Business owners will need to submit the digital platform of their choice (whether website building, app development, or social media marketing) and provide an overview of the business.
Registration closes on December 18, 2024.
The conclusion
The final result? High school students are often an untapped resource to help small businesses. Likewise, small businesses can offer high school students the opportunity to work on meaningful projects that can have real impact, something that excites today’s youth.