Students from a school in Spain have secured victory in the final of World ORT’s Young Entrepreneurship Program (YEP) in the northern hemisphere for the second consecutive year. Their product concept provides real-time alerts if a customer accidentally leaves their front door open.
The pupils, aged 15 and 16 from the ORT-affiliated Colegio Hatikva in Barcelona, won the program’s final round with their business idea LockSense, which has the tagline ‘peace of mind, one door at a time’.
LockSense uses a battery-powered door sensor to provide an instant light and sound alerts, with optional Bluetooth and app connectivity.
The Colegio Hatikva team celebrate their win
Two members of Colegio Hatikva’s team presented LockSense to World ORT’s Council of Representatives 2025 meeting, which was attended by international ORT colleagues, including lay leaders and professionals.
Students from Colegio Hatikva won the YEP northern hemisphere final last year, with their idea for an app, Mental Buddy. It is designed to offer a supportive environment for teenage users to explore and understand their feelings in real time, helping them to navigate through turbulent emotions.
Students from Milan’s Scuola della Comunità Ebraica were awarded second place in this year’s final for their DoctorNow idea, a health app that provides instant diagnoses based on experts and medical textbooks.
The team from Scuola della Comunità Ebraica were behind the DoctorNow proposal
The other seven schools taking part were: ORT Colegio Estrella Toledano, Madrid, Spain; Chernivsti Lyceum “ORT” 15, Ukraine; Lycée ORT Daniel Mayer, Montreuil, France; ORT No. 134 “Dimcho Debelianov” Jewish School, Sofia, Bulgaria; Kfar Silver, Israel; and Instituto Dr. Jaim Weizman, Costa Rica. The judges assessing the students’ pitches were Eric Bronstein, Dan Martin, John-Bernard Rondeau, Eli Richlin and Felix Dreyfus.
YEP promotes business entrepreneurship, motivates students and encourages collaboration. It is one of the key programs run by ORT to help students transform their lives using 21st century skills.
Other entrepreneurial ideas presented in this year’s final were: a food-ordering airport delivery company that avoids long lines; a pepper spray that, when activated, also alerts police and emergency contacts and takes a photograph of the attacker (one judge described this idea as a “serious, viable product”); an intelligent wardrobe that helps to choose the client’s perfect outfit; an app that provides real-time cultural insights for travellers; a pillow that combines technology and education; ‘Build an Organ’, an anatomical interactive toy; and a skill-swap app that allows users to trade skills for little or no cost.
LockSense, the proposal from the Colegio Hatikva team
The YEP program will be sponsored for the next three years by ORT Switzerland. Speaking before the presentations, Phillipe Léopold-Metzger, World ORT Vice-Chair and Vice-President of ORT Switzerland, said: “We are so excited. Training young kids to be great entrepreneurs is one of the best things we can do. I know the quality of the presentations will be great.”
Jim Lodge, World ORT CEO, told the finalists: “I want to say how very impressed I am with this program and with all of you teachers, students and judges – thank you judges! – who have devoted so much time and energy to it.
“I have spoken with some of the past participants of the program, and I know what the impact is. I also know how hard everybody works on it, so kol hakavod to all of you. The power of this program has not gone unnoticed.”
Under YEP, teachers deliver a 30-week curriculum, providing students with an introduction to the world of innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship. The brief is for students to design a product that solves a social problem.
Mr. Martin said: “It was a very tough decision for us as judges because each idea was thoughtfully researched and meticulously put together. Congratulations to the winners and congratulations to everybody participating. Good luck, and I am hopeful for the futures of the inventors globally.”
Mr. Richlin said: “Thank you to the students for all the hard work you put in. Certainly, you are all winners and I hope you take with you the experience of preparing, thinking hard about the problem and the solution, and practicing – those are the skills you can draw upon in whatever you do. We can’t wait to see what is in store for you.”
Mr. Bronstein concluded: “Every presentation… was so impressive and to be able to do so across languages is doubly impressive. I look forward to seeing every one of these people as business leaders, community leaders, and entrepreneurs.”
Students from Colegio Hatikva’s winning team said: “We want to thank the whole ORT team – we are really thankful for this opportunity. We also wanted to say thank you to our teacher, Roger Guerrero; he was with us every step of the way.”