Ms. Rhaveen Carey is nineteen years old. A former student of Bridgeport High School in St. Catherine, she is now Cuba-bound to study medicine, and working on her Spanish. I know she will do well; she has that spark in her eyes.
Rhaveen is a former Youth Innovator. I say “former,” because she and four fellow-students at Bridgeport High formed a team and last year swept to victory to win Katalyxt Jamaica’s second annual competition for young people with ideas. Ideas that can be translated into business – into making money. But that’s not to say that she isn’t still an innovator. I have a feeling she’s just getting started.
How did the Bridgeport team get their innovative idea? Guided by their biology teacher and the coordinator of their 4-H Club, the students put on their thinking caps and came up with the idea of a new mosquito repellent. Why? Because the area that they live in, with its canals and wetlands, is notorious for its mosquitoes. “In the evening, they attack,” Rhaveen chuckles. It’s an all-out assault.
They did their homework, researching the most suitable components for the repellent, and settled on eucalyptus oil as the main ingredient. They added other ingredients “to tone it down,” and then proceeded to the testing period. There was a lot of trial and error, says Rhaveen. And then she laughs. “Do you know how we tested it?” No, I didn’t. “After school, we all went home, and in the evening we went outside. We exposed our hands, one covered with our repellent, and the other without repellent.” In the process, the Bridgeport mosquitoes feasted happily on at least one of the hands. One has to suffer for one’s creation.
The qualification process for the Katalyxt competition is rigorous. As well as developing their product, the students worked on a business plan. While creativity and innovation are key components for entries, the products or services must also be marketable, value-added and well-designed, among other criteria. Judges came to the school, and the Bridgeport team made a presentation – a “pitch” to sell them their product. “I was extremely nervous,” says Rhaveen. But, they made the cut.
Last year’s Katalyxt conference “gave us a lot of exposure,” Rhaveen points out. They gained tremendous confidence, displaying their product to conference attendees. Oh, the name of the repellent, in spray format, is Mosquit-Go! It caught on in their local community – a ready market – and is now on sale in some pharmacies. The team has approached Things Jamaican and other distributors, marketing the repellent as an eco-friendly Jamaican product.
Fast forward to 2014. At last week’s Katalyxt Business Development Conference, there was a little vibration in the air as the time to announce the winners of this year’s Youth Innovators Competition drew near. Small groups of young people were scattered around the conference room at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. Some sat with their elbows on the table, lost in thought. Others laughed and joked nervously.
Katalyxt Team Leader Winsome Minott, who is CEO of Mint Management & Finance Services Limited, told the large audience that it was a hard competition to judge. Minott believes in “sowing seeds.” The concept of the competition – which she is passionate about – embodies the philosophy of Katalyxt. “Katalyxt is about creating wealth – not just for ourselves,” Minott stressed before announcing the winners. “Our team wants to make a difference.”
So, which of the 22 competing schools made the first “cut” this year? From the Kingston area, there was Ardenne High, Papine High, Campion College, Kingston Technical High, Excelsior High, Calabar High, Kingston High, Mona High and Campion College. There were also two St. Catherine schools – Waterford High and Guy’s Hill High; and Central High and Lennon High in Clarendon.
Lennon received an Honorable Mention for its products made from the local calabash – including toasted calabash seed, which you can eat like peanuts. In fourth place came Central High, for a line of skin care products, including soap to treat acne, lotion and oils – developed by just one female student, on her own. In third place – and the Runner-Up in a new category, the Big Idea Award, sponsored by the Development Bank of Jamaica – was Kingston Technical High School, who had ambitiously come up with a wave power machine. There was another new category, the Sustainability Award; Guy’s Hill’s team won with its energy-saving chair (yes, innovative indeed!) with Waterford High as runner-up with a solar house design. Excelsior High were overall third with their pumpkin ice-cream – I wonder what it tastes like!
Waterford also won the Big Idea Award with an anti-praedial larceny device. The Big Idea must “provide a solution to a daily problem,” it was noted, and the Waterford team’s fairly high-tech but simple invention could well be the solution to agricultural theft. And who won the overall competition? Joint winners were Campion College (for their “Xtra Desk”) and Guy’s Hill (for a “Bridge Alarm” that will warn motorists about rising water levels in Bog Walk Gorge – a dangerous spot as one approaches the Flat Bridge).
Robert Johnson, CEO of TeamSupport.com in the United States, was keynote speaker at this year’s Katalyxt Business Development Conference. Johnson noted that entrepreneurs are “creative problem-solvers.“ Indeed, Rhaveen and her fellow-students had a serious health problem in Bridgeport: the scourge of those mosquitoes. The tiny, whining insects are not just a nuisance; they can bring disease and suffering. And the Bridgeport team found a solution.
As an entrepreneur for twenty years with plenty of ups and downs (“waves,” as he called them), Johnson discovered that “the best product doesn’t always win.” It has to be more than that. Customer satisfaction and support is critical; and so is a strong team. Rhaveen believes the Bridgeport team is strong: “We are friends,” she says simply.
So what are Rhaveen’s personal goals? “I’ve always wanted my own business,” she muses. “I love business and medicine, so I’d like to combine the two.”
Sounds like a plan. Good luck to all the Youth Innovators, and congratulations to all the schools who competed this year.
And if you have an idea…As Mr. Johnson urged, don’t procrastinate: “Do it now!”
Petchary's Blog 
can someone send me info on the anti theft concept for the produce? thanks!
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Nice to get a report on such good work. Look forward to seeing these youths rise as major Jamaican business persons.
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