The Ignite Entrepreneurship Competition is a student-led distance learning project consisting of an online curriculum and mentorship program covering a wide range of skills, including branding, networking, and marketing, which is concluded with an in-person competition for students to show off those skills via cooperation with international students, originating from NLCS Jeju, S. Korea.
Our primary purpose is to develop the essential set of skills for students through real life situations and team challenges. Specifically, we aim to provide all participants with education and practical experience in the fields of pitching, entrepreneurship, and financial accounting.
For the 2024-2025 academic year, we hope to continue the success of the IEC, expanding our area of service to the whole of Korea, as well as schools in other countries.
How IEC Started: The Founders’ Story
written by Taehyun Kim and Hyunseok Lee, founders of the Ignite Entrepreneurship Competition
The IEC may now boast a large network and multinational scale, but its journey has persisted for more than four years, as well as many, many different locations.
Originally stemming from the remnants of a planned ‘Marketing and Communications’ school club, IEC, or ‘Project Ignite’, as it was once called, was largely developed through the course of a spring term and summer break (two years ago), as we worked in our dormitory to reach a coherent future vision, one that has lasted until this day.
Starting small was key to a smooth progression towards the bigger picture; ‘Ignite’ first took form in the shape of a co-curricular afterschool club, in a small but packed classroom. We worked mostly towards developing the problem-solving and communication skills of the students we had. We wanted to make sure that our peers received a handful of ‘real-life experiences and team challenges’; seeing the common issue with ‘Paper Tiger’ students with full resumes but little practical experience, we wanted to make sure our students could grow as problem solvers equipped with expertise in networking and business pitching, as well as the real life experience of applying such skills.
After a modest, albeit successful first showcase in March of 2023, our mission was to expand to a much larger scale, finding confidence in our vision. In our mission to do so, we extended our services towards an online bootcamp process, and successfully got in contact with many respectable industry mentors and seniors, partnering with executives from firms and corporations such as MBK Partners and Nespresso, as well as schools such as the University of Pennsylvania and Jeju National University.
The 2024 competition, now of an international scale with students participating from Singapore, was also a great success, and has opened up the gates for us to go even farther beyond the boundaries once set. Taehyun, now moving on from executive leadership, remains in an advisory role as part of the Senior Board, while Hyunseok is now at the helm.
Ignite 2025 is now on its way.
IGNITE: Global Entrepreneurship Pitching Competition 