And the CEO Proud Award goes to:

Gateway CEO students have spent this second semester working very hard to develop their own business plans, work through marketing, service and product development, financials and branding. They each competed with each other on Thursday at the Gateway CEO 2026 Fish Tank Competition and we will be sharing more pictures and awards soon!

As part of this competition, the students have the opportunity to select one of their peers to receive the Gateway CEO Proud Award. Here is the criteria for the award:
Class of 2026, you have had the opportunity to witness hours and hours of accomplishments with your classmates. The goal of this award is to recognize a CEO student that has shown tremendous growth, hard work and perseverance throughout the individual business development process in class.

Your selection may be a student that has:
Overcome a lot of obstacles (such as fear of presenting, obstacles inside or outside of class, etc.)
Listened to feedback and made significant improvements based on that feedback
Worked incredibly hard
Shown incredible growth
Stood out to you in some other way, shape or form

This year's Gateway CEO Proud Award goes to Sophia Murphy. CONGRATULATIONS! She has developed Sophia's Chapter Critters as her business. Her goal is simple: Helping little readers feel big confidence with one Chapter Critter at a time!

Here are a few things her peers had to say about her:
~ I love her story. She worked extremely hard to make a product that represents her ability to overcome.
~ Meets all criteria, has a fantastic story, and a business that I think can really help people.
~ I think she did a great job presenting and being proud of her product! She also answered the judges questions in a great way!
~ Her story is very impactful, and we all know that her business means just as much to her as our individual businesses mean to us.
~ I voted Sofia because I really think her business idea is really one of a kind and will help the literacy rate that we have. I myself also really struggled on reading growing up when being forced to learn a language I never understood but was the only way to communicate with other and it was a big challenge for me. As I started to pick up the language I got tired of it and my mom would tell me to ready to my toys, stuff animals. I did find it more interactive for me that way. This is why I feel like if it’s helped me and hearing Sofia's story, I really think it can help many other children out there to find love in reading.