Who is Eligible?

The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards welcomes nominations from any country around the globe!  

Here are the criteria for the 2010 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards:

• The student must be an undergraduate student at a recognized university or college for the 2009/2010 academic year and enrolled in school at the time of application.
   
• The student must be the owner, founder or controlling shareholder of their company and principally responsible for its operation.
   
• The student’s company must have been in business for at least the past six consecutive months, and the business must be a for-profit business.
   
• The student must have not been the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards winner in the past and/or were not one of the five finalists for the 2009 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards Global Finals competition.

High School Award: http://www.gsea.org/awardinfo/Pages/HighSchoolStudentAward.aspx

Graduate Award: http://www.gsea.org/awardinfo/Pages/GraduateStudentAward.aspx

Please contact Global Student Entrepreneur Awards should you have any questions regarding these criteria.

Awards Information
The path to the Global Finals is a challenging one for the student entrepreneurs competing in the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards.  Here is the step-by-step process a student entrepreneur goes through, from nomination to the final awards:

1. A student is nominated or nominates themselves through our online nomination form located at http://www.gsea.org/nominate/. 
   
2. Once we receive a nomination, the nominee is contacted with a link to the formal Global Student Entrepreneur Awards application, which the student nominee must complete in full.
   
   Please Note: A nominees’ application for the will be evaluated by a panel of Entrepreneurs’ Organization members and Senior Executives based on the following criteria:
• Completeness. At time of review, the student entrepreneur submitted a signed letter from accountant or financials verifying business revenues;
• Application shows student entrepreneurs’ ability to overcome obstacles;
• Clarity of business mission and vision;
• Leadership;
• Innovation;
• Presentation. We request a non-essay format response to application questions.
  
3. Once we receive the nominee’s fully completed application, we check to ensure that the nominee qualifies for the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards based on our criteria, which you can review above.
   
4. Depending on the nominee’s location, one of two steps will happen next:
• If the nominee is located in an area with a local competition: Nominees that are in regional competition areas may have different deadlines for their completed application! Successful applicants selected to compete by Entrepreneurs’ Organization members at the regional Global Student Entrepreneur Awards competition will be contacted with the times and dates for the regional competition. 
• If the nominee is located in an area without a regional competition: Global Student Entrepreneur Awards will contact the nominee once they have successfully submitted their online application to discuss when their application will be judged virtually by a panel of entrepreneurs. International applicants may be required to be present at a certain time/date for a teleconference with the judges, where they can ask the student clarifying questions regarding their business. 
  
5. If the applicant should advance past this stage and is contacted to compete at the regional competition, all details regarding the judging criteria, competition location, competition requirements (i.e. written report), presentation guide, competition agenda, et cetera will be provided to the competing student entrepreneur. The winners will be announced the evening of the competition.
   
6. The first place winner of the regional competition will be invited to compete at the 2010 GSEA Global Finals competition. Further details on the Global Finals competition are provided as we get closer to the date.
   
7. GSEA will provide all Finalists with a competition package including the judging criteria, timeline, information on hotel, travel, the awards reception and more.  Finalists are heavily encouraged to gain the support of a mentor or peer to prepare the written work and presentation for the Global Finals.
   
8. Finalists/regional winners compete at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards Global Finals, presenting on their business to a panel of distinguished entrepreneurs.  Should the Finalist advance through to the afternoon Final Round of the Global Finals, they will present again to a new panel of high-level CEOs and entrepreneurs. The winner is announced the evening of the competition at the GSEA Gala Awards Dinner.
   

Should you have any questions on any step of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards process, please e-mail us at info@gsea.org.