Alpha Gamma, a business portal for millennials, has ranked the University of Delaware Horn Program in Entrepreneurship’s Diamond Challenge among the top 29 best international business plan competitions.

Alpha Gamma recognized the Diamond Challenge, a venture concept competition for high school students, for its focus on unleashing creativity, encouraging a mindset of abundance and self-determination and promoting purposeful entrepreneurial action.

The Diamond Challenge appeared on Alpha Gamma’s list along with the KPMG International Case Competition, Rice Business Plan Competition and Global Student Entrepreneur Awards.

“Being on this list with so many other amazing student competitions signals that what the UD Horn Program in Entrepreneurship has created is valuable,” said Julie Frieswyk, manager of youth programs at the Horn Program.

In the Diamond Challenge, students from across the world compete for awards from a prize pool of $100,000 by conceiving an idea for a new business or social venture. Students create a written concept as well as a five-minute pitch to be evaluated by a variety of judges.

Ranked at number 20, the Diamond Challenge is notably one of just two competitions on the list that are designed specifically for teens among many competitions for graduate and undergraduate college students.

“This is an area in which we have a lot of impact,” Frieswyk said. “We have more than 400 teams registered from 24 countries for the 2017 Diamond Challenge competition.”

Enrollment in the Diamond Challenge is open until Sunday, Nov. 27.

Capital One supports this program as part of its Future Edge initiative, a five-year $150 million initiative designed to help people get the skills they need to be competitive in this digital economy.

About the Diamond Challenge

The Diamond Challenge is a competition that allows students to learn about entrepreneurship while putting their ideas into action. Participants pitch their ideas for a new business or social venture to a panel of judges to compete for cash prizes.

The Diamond Challenge is one program of the Paul and Linda McConnell Youth Entrepreneurship Education Initiative.

About the Horn Program in Entrepreneurship

The Horn Program in Entrepreneurship ignites imaginations and empowers world changers through educational offerings that emphasize experiential learning, evidence-based entrepreneurship and active engagement with entrepreneurs and other members of the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Through participation in Horn Program offerings, students gain the knowledge, skills, personal capacities, experiences, connections and access to resources needed to successfully manifest innovation and thrive in the rapidly changing world.