Diamond Challenge 2026 for High School Students ($100K prize pool) – YOA

Deadline: January 15, 2026

Applications are open for the Diamond Challenge 2026. The Diamond Challenge, a philanthropic training initiative by Horn Entrepreneurship on the University of Delaware, offers free assets for college students, educators, and entrepreneurship practitioners. Participants study from new concepts and create, submit, and current authentic enterprise and social enterprise ideas.

The competitors focuses on turning passions into enterprise or social enterprise ideas, providing a philanthropic training initiative that gives free assets for college students, educators, and entrepreneurship practitioners. Participants are anticipated to study from new concepts, create, submit, and current authentic ideas, develop drawback-fixing abilities, exhibit distinctive worth, discover income or social influence sustainability, and advance entrepreneurial potential.

Prizes

• 1st Place: $12,000
• 2nd Place: $8,000
• third Place: $4,500

Eligibility

• Teams should consist of two-4 highschool college students aged 14-18 on the submission deadline. Each crew is required to have one grownup advisor aged 21 or older. While a number of advisors are allowed, just one might be included within the official crew submission. Contact data, together with electronic mail addresses, have to be supplied for all crew members, together with the grownup advisor. Each scholar could take part on just one crew and submit one idea per competitors yr.
• Upon preliminary submission, every crew is required to decide on a contest monitor (enterprise innovation or social innovation) in addition to a pitch spherical format (reside pitch occasion or digital/pre-recorded). Selections are thought-about closing upon submission.
• Throughout the competitors, contributors should keep away from itemizing or disclosing the names of their faculties until the varsity constitutes a vital ingredient of their idea.
• Only ideas created by members of the crew could also be submitted. If a submission has additionally been conceived by members not taking part within the Diamond Challenge, their full authorized names have to be disclosed throughout submission to keep away from potential conflicts of curiosity and/or potential authorized challenges at later phases of the competitors.
• Concepts should not have generated greater than $100,000 in whole income previous to the submission deadline.
• Concepts which have superior to the ultimate spherical (Summit) in prior years can’t be resubmitted.

Application

Click here to apply

For extra data, go to Diamond Challenge.