Bold ideas from 11 Texas students are among just 60 semifinalist submissions selected from over 3,700 nationwide to pitch at the Mott Million Dollar Challenge, June 15-16 in downtown Flint.

FLINT, Mich., June 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Eleven students from Texas have been selected as semifinalists in the Mott Million Dollar Challenge, a national pitch competition for K-12 students.

More than 5,300 young people from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. submitted over 3,700 business ideas and social solutions to the Challenge. From those entries, 1,500 submissions were selected in the first round. Now, the creators behind the top 60 ideas are advancing to compete at a live national event in Flint, Michigan next week.

The Texas semifinalists and their ideas are:

Double D 4000 — Joshua Gagakuma (4th Grade, School for the Highly Gifted) and Yahshua Gagakuma (3rd Grade, School for the Highly Gifted), social pitch: An organizational folder with planners, trackers, fidgets and storage designed to help students improve focus and routines.

Creative ReBoxing — Ayden Jennings (4th Grade, Mark Twain School for the Talented and Gifted), business pitch: A kit that turns cardboard boxes into customizable toys and crafts that encourage creativity and hands-on play.

Toys on Demand — Domingo Perez (4th Grade, Mason Elementary School), social pitch: A retail model that uses in-store 3D printing to create toys on demand, reducing waste and shipping emissions.

Rip Drone — Grace Kennedy (5th Grade, School for the Highly Gifted) and Henry Kennedy (8th Grade, School for the Highly Gifted), business pitch: A beach safety system that uses wristbands and AI to detect rip current victims and deploy flotation devices.

PlayMetrics — Azfar Ali and Jeremiah Hurd (8th Grade, School for the Highly Gifted), business pitch: A wearable sports analytics platform that tracks performance and generates personalized training plans.

Signal Sync AI Traffic Light — Kayla Tracy (9th Grade, Weatherford High School), business pitch: An AI-powered traffic light system that reduces congestion and speeds emergency response times.

Santraa — Tanmay Kandi (11th Grade, Frisco Centennial High School), business pitch: An automated vehicle sanitization system that quickly disinfects rideshare vehicles between passengers.

Naturista — Karan Verma (11th Grade, Liberty High School), social pitch: A dissolvable and biodegradable coffee pod that reduces plastic waste while preserving single-serve convenience.

As semifinalists, each project will be awarded $5,000. The students will pitch live in front of judges during the final competition June 15-16 in Flint.

Funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation as part of its centennial celebration, the Mott Million Dollar Challenge is administered by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) in collaboration with VentureLab, Young Entrepreneur Institute (YEI), the Afterschool Alliance, Collaborative Communications and the 50 State Afterschool Network.

Learn more about the Mott Million Dollar Challenge and explore semifinalist ideas at https://mottmillion.org/60-semifinalist-pitches/.

Contact:
Jen Peters
peters@collaborativecommunications.com

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SOURCE Charles Stewart Mott Foundation