Twenty-four young Bellevue entrepreneurs debuted 17 companies at the fifth YEA! Student Startup Trade Show at the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce last Wednesday.

The students participated in the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, a 30-week business course, through the Bellevue Chamber. The academy is an educational program that takes students in grades 6-12 through the process of starting and running real businesses. Students work closely with local industry leaders, community members and educators to develop ideas and objectives, write business plans, pitch to potential investors, obtain funding, register with governmental agencies and develop brand identity.

An investor panel of judges awarded $4,500 to the companies to help with their start-up costs through the Bellevue Chamber Foundation, with support from Legacy Champion, Columbia Bank, KeyBank and the Bellevue School District.

“I thought the presentations were amazing, well thought out and innovative ideas. I was most impressed with the students’ ability to articulate their vision and execute on a plan,” Diane Najm, who is the CEO and president of PhotoPad for Business and was a judge at the event, said in a press release.

Dwight Phillips, senior vice president and commercial banking officer at Columbia Bank, said he enjoyed seeing young people get real-life experience in starting a business.

“Being a banker, we like to see entrepreneurs in the real world. To have students like this get a flavor of that early in their life is going to make it all the better,” he said. “We love having our name associated with this high quality of students. It’s good for them and it’s good for us.”

The academy was taught by Thomas Tomasevic, the CEO and leadership coach at T2Team, a business consultancy that specializes in individual and team performance analytics and coaching. This was Tomasevic’s second full year leading the course.

“I teach leadership to the large companies and so this was second nature but just more fun,” he said.

The focus of the businesses at the trade show ranged from serving underprivileged youth, to helping immigrants transition to a new country, to helping drivers find affordable and accessible parking in the city.

CEO of Build-a-Bot Club, Shakti Shentil

Odle Middle School eighth-grader Shakti Shentil is the CEO of Build-a-Bot Club. Build-a-Bot Club is a nonprofit that teaches robotics to kids in underfunded schools in Washington. It will host robotics birthday parties and workshops.

“They get to come in, build their own robot, race it, eat some cake and hang out with friends in a fun atmosphere,” Shentil said.

CEOs of Immigrant Nation, Rica Zhang and Mehek Gosalia

Immigrant Nation is a nonprofit corporation that provides resources for new immigrants in the United States. CEOs Rica Zhang from Forest Ridge Middle School and Mehek Gosalia from The Overlake School, said that it’s important to help immigrants connect with their new community.

“As an immigrant, you learn quickly that there is such a huge community here and it’s so hard to take that first step to get into that community. So, our app is to help ease the transition but to also connect them to the community,” Gosalia said. “We see this as an aid to our country as it will create more building blocks.”

Overlake School sixth grader and runnerup Aaditya Rao is the CEO of Zoompark, which makes parking more affordable and convenient through an app that lets drivers reserve a spot and pay for it.

Rao said he drew his inspiration from commuting from Redmond to Seattle twice a week.

“It takes a lot of time to get there and by the time I get there, it takes so much time just to find parking. I built this idea off of my frustration. At the first YEA class, our guest speaker said that most business ideas come from frustrations,” he said.

The investor panel selected Odle Middle School eighth grader Neil Chowdhury, CEO of iConverge, to represent Bellevue at the 10th Annual YEA! Saunders Scholars National Semi-Finals College Scholarship competition.

iConverge is a cross-platform app that treats patients with double vision cheaply and efficiently and in a way that’s a lot more fun. Chowdhury has already developed his mobile platform of eye exercises and is working with a local optometrist to use his platform for other patients.

“It wasn’t until last year that I found out that I had double vision. I thought the paper exercises were boring,” he said.

For a full list of the businesses featured at the trade show, visit www.bellevuechamber.org/page/foundation.