A team from ORT Argentina Belgrano Campus in Buenos Aires has won this year’s World ORT Taub Young Entrepreneurship Program (YEP) in the southern hemisphere.
The team proposed an app called Forget Me Not that is aimed at carers of elderly people who might not always be nearby to support their loved ones. The premise is that older people want to live as independently as possible without becoming a burden.
The app, which provides medicine reminders to patients, has the tagline “remembering is a love language” and features an emergency button that shares their location with the caregiver.
In second place was Colegio Leon Pinelo in Lima, Peru, a school that had not previously taken part in the competition. This team proposed an app called DermaVision that provides accessible and real-time personalized skincare solutions using AI technology. Pupils aimed high, hopeful that DermaVision would be the top choice for personalized skincare within five to ten years.
Taking third place was the team from Mbongeni Mgugudu Secondary School in Tsakane, South Africa. It was also this school’s first time taking part in YEP and pupils proposed an app called AgriVision, the aim of which is to empower small-scale farmers with technology to enhance productivity, sustainability and resilience.
The Taub YEP competition is an opportunity for ORT students to live the experience of designing a product or service that solves a social problem, with milestone presentations and pitches to judges throughout the course.
During the virtual live final in November, the six teams from high schools in the southern hemisphere completed the last of the five challenges: a five-minute presentation of their projects before answering questions from judges.
The other teams were from King David School, Johannesburg, South Africa; Herzlia School, Cape Town, South Africa; and Escola ORT Brazil. All six teams of students received an in-depth grounding in the world of innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.
Part of ORT Argentina Belgrano’s winning team
The judging panel was made up of Jorey Chernett, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Authentic4D and previously a venture capitalist and an investment banker; Gregory Wise, who sits on the board of ORT Canada and is a principal at commercial real estate investment firm Sailcap that he founded this year; and Marc de Gunzburg, founder of Alyeska Advisors and Chairman of the Investment Committee of World ORT and President of ORT Switzerland.
Speaking before the pupils made their presentations, Daniel Tysman, World ORT’s Head of Education, said: “Schools are very good at teaching you knowledge and helping you to practice skills but what makes ORT schools stand out is that they are really good at helping you to prepare for changing times.
“ORT was established more than 140 years ago to deal with a very unpredictable future and, over the decades since then, ORT has always been about giving students not only the knowledge and skills but the mindset, the attitudes and the experience that will help them to succeed.”
He told the students that the biggest transformational changes they were likely to experience in the world were the impact of artificial intelligence and globalisation. “What we’re doing through the YEP project is to give you an entrepreneurial mindset and that means that when you look around you don’t only see problems, you also see opportunities.”
Students from Colegio Leon Pinelo
In a pre-recorded address, Robert Taub, the sponsor of YEP, said: “I became the lead sponsor of the YEP program because I wanted to give something back. And the best reward for me would be if, one day, one of these projects you are presenting, would actually lead to a concrete business plan and even, later on, to commercialisation. In the global economy it’s the small and medium enterprises that really make the world go round… it’s the desire to create something and build. I believe very much in technology… …
“It’s the thinking process that is very important and ORT’s mission, which is to educate you but also to open your mind and to provide the skills for the future. I wish you all success in this competition and also lots of fun because this is what it’s all about.”
The winning team from ORT Argentino Belgrano said: “Thank you so much – and thanks to everyone here. Congratulations to the other teams for being here – it was a pleasure to be with you all, working together.”
ORT Argentina will participate in the international challenge week in July 2025 with students from World ORT’s Kfar Silver Youth Village and ORT UK.
