PEORIA MAGAZINE August 2023

S P O T L I G H T

CALL IT SHARK TANK-LITE FOR TEENS Pontiac High School teacher and coach Paul Ritter is channeling the inner entrepreneur in his students

BY NICK VLAHOS PHOTO BY RON JOHNSON

P aul Ritter is in his 50s, but he might be one of the biggest cheerleaders in central Illinois. Much of Ritter’s energy – and Ritter seems to have a lot of it – is invested in helping to identify, nurture and salute students who aspire to be innovators and entrepreneurs. That’s true whether they’re trying to develop a new product or help solve some social ill. “I love it when people come up to me and say, ‘Well, kids aren’t like they used to be.’ Well, no, they’re not,” said Ritter, a science teacher at Pontiac Township High School. “They’re able to do so many things that we could only dream of.” Dreamers and others are welcome to participate in the Celebrating High School Innovators (CHSI) program Ritter helped establish about a decade ago. Personnel from Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan universities and the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association bolster the not-for-profit group. Interested high school students, individually or in teams, submit essays and videos about their proposed projects to CHSI. There are five cat egories – arts, media and literature; business entrepreneurship; health and nutrition; social entrepreneurship; and science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Annual competition begins in late winter, when students present their ideas to professionals who serve as judges. Top teams are invited to the finals, which in 2024 are scheduled for April 6 at Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington. Sales pitches and questions and answers with judges are part of it, akin to a kinder and-gentler student version of the TV show Shark Tank . “They have to have presentation skills. The ability to write. The ability to put yourself out there and sell yourself to a point where people believe in you,” Ritter said about the students. The top five finishers receive a $1,000 grant, college-scholarship opportu nities and chances through manufac turers to acquire additional funding. Money for CHSI comes from donations Ritter solicits from universities, indus try and other private donors. THE ‘OPRAH OF PONTIAC’ “Essentially, we’re creating a pipeline for these kids that will push them into warp drive,” Ritter said. “I want to be like the Oprah of Pontiac: ‘You get a thousand dollars, and you get a thousand dollars.’ I want to funnel … needed, well-used money and networking and knowledge to these kids.”

In 2023, more than 50 teams and 150 students participated, according to Ritter. Participants have come from throughout the U.S. and from as far away as Germany and Turkey. International involvement became more prevalent in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the competition became virtual. MAKING COMMUNITIES ‘SUCK LESS’ IS ‘WORTH EVERY SECOND’ Closer to home, a 2018 graduate of Metamora Township High School found the CHSI program invaluable. Spring Bay native Jackson Nannie was part of a 2015 group that organized the First Annual Peoria Project. It was inspired by the national DoSomething organization, a not-for-profit that helps young people create positive change in the world. Among other things, the project collected peanut-butter donations for Peoria Friendship House to make more than 3,000 sandwiches for those in need. Nannie and friends partnered with high school Key Clubs to make blankets for children lodged at Family House Peoria. The group’s slogan certainly was memorable: “Make Peoria Suck Less.”

24 JULY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE