On March 25, the National Honor Society at Ponte Vedra High School hosted Shrimp Tank. Similar to the television show “Shark Tank,” Shrimp Tank was an entrepreneurship competition for high school students in St. Johns County to pitch their business ideas in front of a panel of judges.
Students were given five minutes to pitch their idea and then answer any questions from the judges. There were nine total presentations from student groups as large as five members to single student presenters.
Each group had a unique idea and had put a lot of time and effort into the project. The pitches ranged from a lost-and-found business all the way to an ecofriendly salt battery.
The judges chose Volt Gel as the third-place winner. Volt Gel group members included Annie Merritt, Nehaasri Kaluva, Nat Bagnau, Ivanka Rodriguez and Ana Ramirez. All the members of Volt Gel are juniors at Ponte Vedra High School, and they are all in the Bio Tech Academy. They are currently working to develop a less invasive and more effective treatment for lung cancer using hydrogels. They were presented with a check for $250.
Second place was awarded to Neural Q. Neural Q is a software service platform inspired by quantum algorithms that run on a different dimensional space. These algorithms can understand brain signals. This software is specifically designed for people who suffer from neurological conditions. This project is very close to the hearts of Sanri Tummala and Gurhans Dhillon, students from Creekside High School who pitched it to the judges. Tummala is currently working alongside Stamford undergrads to further develop the project. The team was awarded $500.
The first-place prize of $1,000 was awarded to Vita Tap. Vita Tap’s goal is to provide affordable access to auto injections specifically targeted for severe allergic reactions. Group members Nathan Lough, Jacob Griffin and Elijah Miller said that one problem they wanted to address is the improper disposal of needles and other single use plastics. Another area of concern they wanted to investigate was the high cost of the current medication, which they stated was due to the monopoly Pfizer had over the EpiPen until the patent expired in September 2025. Their product enables a customer to visit a local pharmacy and have the needle and cartridge of the injector taken out and replaced sterilely without having to purchase a whole new unit. All three group members are seniors at Creekside High School and are in the Engineering Academy program.
