Inside the $53K High School Innovation Competition That SVSU Hosted in Michigan

The floor wax, nervous perspiration, and stale coffee from the volunteer table by the door gave the gym the typical smell of college gyms on competition days. Outside, the late-winter wind off the Tittabawassee was rattling the banners SVSU had hung along the entrance walkway and cutting sideways through parking lots.

Inside, about two hundred high school students waited for the judges to arrive behind folding tables covered with tablecloths that fell just short of the floor.

Situated ten minutes north of Saginaw proper in University Center, Saginaw Valley State University is not the institution that frequently makes headlines across the country. It’s a public university in the area, primarily a commuter campus, and its reputation has been quietly established over many years. Therefore, it seemed a little out of character for the school to be giving out $53,000 in prize money to teenagers on this specific weekend; in hindsight, this was probably done on purpose.

Teams from all over mid-Michigan participated in the Cardinal Solutions Innovation Challenge. Walking through the rows gives you the impression that you’re witnessing something that doesn’t quite have a name yet, somewhere between a science fair, a venture pitch, and what at times appeared to be a really intense group project being graded by strangers in business casual. A group from a high school in Bay County used salvaged aquarium parts to create a low-cost water filtration prototype.

Another from Midland was pitching an app that used voice cues to help senior citizens keep track of their medications. A third had a tiny drone that could be used to check agricultural fields for nitrogen deficiency, the child patiently explained to a skeptical judge.

It’s difficult to ignore the fact that adults at these kinds of gatherings frequently adopt a certain tone, which is supportive and a little theatrical, similar to how people sound when they’re being filmed. That was not an issue for the students. They were nervous, sometimes painfully earnest, sometimes over-rehearsed. Halfway through her presentation on a recyclable packaging concept, a girl broke down in tears, but she miraculously continued. After finishing the slide, her teammate gave her a tissue.

Of course, the prize money is important. Fifty-three thousand dollars, spread across grade levels and categories, is real money—enough to cover a first semester, encourage a college decision, or even start a real prototype. However, all of the teachers I spoke with in the hallway agreed that the money wasn’t really the point. Many reported that students who had never considered themselves to be business or engineering students were suddenly inquiring about majors. Compared to a check, that type of shift is more difficult to measure.

One could argue that Michigan, which is still dealing with the long-term effects of its industrial reorganization, needs exactly this kind of investment—homegrown, regional, and unassuming. For years, the state has invested heavily in workforce pipelines, with varying degrees of success. It’s genuinely unclear if a weekend competition held at a university significantly alters that equation. The majority of these children might end up doing something entirely different from what they pitched. One of them might not, too.

By late afternoon, most of the students were sitting on the floor, eating pizza from boxes balanced on their laps, while the judges had withdrawn to deliberate. A speaker had been brought by someone. Good-naturedly, two boys were debating whether or not their drone would have flown if the rules had permitted it. Observing them gave you the clear impression that, regardless of what transpired with the prize money, they were already benefiting from it in a way that the spreadsheet was unable to record.