Sydney Gardner ’17 advanced to the second round of the national elevator pitch competition during the three-day conference in Tampa, Florida, and three Foresters shared their success stories with standing-room-only crowds:

• Tyler Armentrout ’18, president of Lake Forest’s CEO chapter, spoke about the group’s top strategies for marketing its events on campus. He was among a group of 10 panelists hand-picked from across the country to present their organization’s game plan.
• An hour later, Armentrout was back in front of another packed audience, this time with Sakhile Nkambule ’17 and Anthony Conn ’17. The three presented “Full-time Student/Part-time Entrepreneur” and were the only students selected to explain how they juggle running a business or planning a startup while going to college. 

“We don’t realize, at Lake Forest, how far ahead we are compared to other colleges in terms of thinking as a business major,” said Nkambule, who remotely runs his Swaziland-based business, Swazi Jive—a full-service entertainment company that organizes music events, merchandising, and boasts its own music label—while he attends college full-time. Pitch It! finalists selected