For the past three years the Media Arts Honors students have participated in an event called Shark Tank. The event is based on the actual show called Shark Tank in which people come up with inventions to pitch to billionaire investors.

The Media Arts honors students were split into three groups and given a theme to base their product design off of and “sell” to the judges. The theme for this year’s Hawthorne High School Shark Tank was candy. The judges/sharks, (yes the judges are called sharks!) this year were Ms. Denise, Mr. Spirito, Mr. Cunningham, and Ms. Trabona. The groups were being judged on creativity, teamwork, and design.

The first group to present their product was Daniella Bonafede, Nina Rosario, Sabrina Dotday, and Sofia Difilippo. Their product was a luxury candy bar called S4RPRISE. The candy bar would include flavors such as Twix, Reese’s Pieces, Crunch, and Oreos. The packaging of the candy bar would not include what kind it was and that would make it a surprise. The 4 in the logo represents the four possible mixes of candy you could get. The candy bar would be a partner with the brand Supreme and be mainly sold at clothing stores.

The second group was Abby Reicher, Jenna Ventrice, and Jacquelyn Hampson. Their candy was called Monster Bites which is a 100% peanut free chocolate candy. The reason why they chose to be a peanut free chocolate is so that kids with peanut allergies could also enjoy the sweet taste of chocolate. There are three kinds of Monster Bites you could get. You could get milk chocolate, white chocolate, or dark chocolate. The group also came up with the idea to make an interactive website for the chocolate. After purchasing the Monster Bites there would be a code inside the box that you could enter into the website. After entering the code into the website you would then get an interactive monster to play games with. This product would be sold at all drug stores such as Rite Aid and CVS.

The last group to go was Chris Branagh, Dan Sweetman, and Brianna Brislin. Their pitch to the judges was a candy called Sweet Stax. Sweet Stax would have sweet, sour, and chocolate flavors. The brand would be partnered with candy brands such as Mike and Ike, Skittles, Life Savers, and Haribo. The boxes that the candy came in would include a puzzle piece. After collecting 4 puzzle pieces the consumer would be able to get a mystery box which would include any of the flavors previously mentioned for free. The group came up with the idea (of the puzzle) since their product would be mainly kid based.

After all of the groups gave their presentations, the judges were given time to deliberate to choose a winner for the competition. The winner was chosen based off of who had the most points on the rubric the judges were given. After a few minutes of deliberating, the winner was announced. The winner of Shark Tank this year was S4RPRISE. The group had convinced the sharks that they had the best idea for a candy this year.

We here at The Clarion want to say good job to all of the groups that competed in the event and a special congratulations to Daniella Bonafede, Sofia DiFilippo, Sabrina Dotday, and Nina Rosario.