Kempsville High School students are not just learning formulas, writing assignments, or presentation skills for a grade. At the Entrepreneurship and Business Academy, they are being asked to use those skills the way adults do: to solve problems, build products, explain financials, persuade an audience, and defend an idea in front of people who can say yes.

That was the bigger story behind the academy’s eighth Pitch Night, where seven student-led ventures, representing 25 students, took the stage in front of Hampton Roads business leaders to compete for investment support. Five of the seven teams earned funding commitments, with $42,000 awarded across the evening. Turf Warrior claimed the top prize, securing $15,000, the largest single award of the night.

The event, which began in 2018 and missed only spring 2020, has become more than a student showcase. It is a real-world test of whether students can take what they are learning in different classes and apply it to something tangible.

For Meghan Timlin, Kempsville Entrepreneurship & Business Academy Coordinator at Virginia Beach City Public Schools, that is why the program matters.

“EBA is dynamic in that business touches on every other field from medical to legal to fashion,” Timlin said. “Students in our program learn a set of skills that prepare them for whatever they do post-secondary.”

That preparation was visible throughout Pitch Night. Students were not simply standing on stage with ideas. They had to understand their costs, explain their market, think through product development, communicate clearly, and show judges why their venture deserved support.

That is a different kind of learning than memorizing a concept long enough to get the answer right on a test. It forces students to see where math, finance, research, writing, and communication show up in real life. Pricing a product means the numbers matter. Explaining a customer problem means the research matters. Presenting in front of judges means students have to manage nerves, speak clearly, make eye contact, read the room, and communicate without hiding behind a screen. Responding to feedback means the thinking has to hold up beyond the classroom.

“Entrepreneurship is a skillset and it touches on all areas of education,” Timlin said. “You can see in the pitches where students are using all of the content areas in order to create a deliverable. We see the math in the finances and the product development, we see the science in the creation of goods, we have presentation skills that are grounded in research, reading and writing. Entrepreneurship is really where students put together all of the things they learn into one cohesive presentation, it is real life application of skills they learn in all other content areas.”

The program’s impact has also been recognized beyond the school. Kempsville High School’s Entrepreneurship and Business Academy received the 2025 IHR 757 TechNite Award for Innovation in Entrepreneurship, a regional honor that reinforces the academy’s role in helping students connect classroom learning to business creation.

Pitch Night is not always the end of the assignment. For some students, it becomes the beginning of something real. Timlin said past funded teams have successfully launched products, including a children’s book sold on Amazon, Swag Stick surf wax sold in local surf shops, SheClasp products sold online, and Velovate, which now has an online storefront and ships its product designed to allow barefoot bike riding at the beach.

This year’s judging panel included Bruce Thompson, Drew Ungvarsky, Gilbert T. Bland, Delceno Miles, and William I. Foster III, bringing deep business experience into the room and giving students feedback, visibility, and support from leaders who understand what it takes to build.

For Hampton Roads, the larger story is not just the $42,000 awarded. It is that students are getting early practice using classroom skills in real-world situations, with real feedback, real pressure, and real stakes.

At Kempsville High School’s Entrepreneurship and Business Academy, entrepreneurship is not just being taught as a subject. It is being used as a way to help students understand why what they are learning matters, and how those skills can turn into something real.