Awards & Recognition

BASIS Independent Schools Means Business Competition

March 2, 2023 by msnyder

Congratulations to “Rainbow,” our student team from BASIS Independent Fremont, on winning the inaugural “BINS Means Business” competition. This is a startup pitch contest that any high school student or student team from each of our BASIS Independent Schools (BINS) can enter. The contestants competed locally at each of their schools, presenting a business idea following the Y Combinator pitch deck format. Then the school winners advanced to the finals, which were held on February 25th over Zoom. The five finalists split $10,000, with $5,000 and $2,000 awarded to the winner and runner-up, to allocate to a charity of their choice.

Angela Z. and Lauren W., both students in BASIS Independent Fremont’s Class of 2026, presented their innovative idea for an environmentally friendly and biodegradable smart umbrella – the Parapluie. All of the judges were impressed by the sophistication of their presentation as well as the great potential of their product. “I’m ready to order mine right away,” commented one judge!

“We could not have done it without the help of Mr. Ong, our instructors, and our peers, who have supported us and guided us throughout this entire journey,” said Angela and Lauren. “It’s been a great pleasure to have worked with everyone along the way, and we’re honestly a bit sad that it’s over! Those couple of sleepless nights and that intense feeling of stressing out before each round will only pass down as precious memories. So, thank you, everyone, for supporting us so that we could see a rainbow at the end of this memorable road!”

Mr. Ong, Economics and Business Subject Expert Teacher at BASIS Independent Fremont expressed his pride and congratulations.

“Heartiest congratulations to Angela and Lauren, co-founders of the Rainbow Company, for their outstanding performance. It was a pleasure to work with them on this project. This inaugural business competition at BASIS Independent Schools is a great initiative to strengthen the BASIS Curriculum in business and finance, and, as a DECA advisor, I look forward to continuing to nurture our students’ business drive and lay the foundation for their future success in college and beyond.”

Second place was awarded to Scarlett S. in BASIS Independent Manhattan’s class of 2024 with her company Gard-Eco, a home delivery service for home gardens in New York City.

Scarlett S., Class of 2024

“I loved stepping out of my comfort zone by participating in this competition, and I am so grateful for this amazing learning experience,” said Scarlett.

Student teams competing in the final all received prizes of $1,000, with the winning team receiving $5,000 and the second place team $2,000. The money is donated to a charity or cause of choice.

Rainbow has decided to donate their prize money to the charity Doctors Without Borders. GardEco has selected the organization Choose Creativity.

Congratulations are also in order to our three school finalists across the network:

Brooklyn – Alexa L. ’24 pitched a Sustainable Fashion app that would help facilitate used clothes donations and drive consumers to purchase from sustainable clothing retailers. She will donate her $1,000 prize to Little Essentials, a non-profit in Brooklyn helping underserviced families with gently used clothing donations for babies and children.

McLean – Melis O. and Shaun J. ’24 pitched their Sustainability Index Platform and Marketplace concept. They will donate their $1,000 prize to Turkish Philanthropy Funds.

Silicon Valley – Roshan A., Nathan W., and Max W. ’24 pitched a business idea called Chlarity. They donated their $1,000 prize to Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.

BINS Means Business – Expert Judging Panel

Ms. Catherine Lu
Ms. Catherine Lu is a venture capital investor at Alumni Ventures, where she makes investments in startups at their earliest stages of development. Previously, she held product management roles at DataVisor and Palantir. Prior to that, she co-founded a retail analytics startup that was acquired by Palantir. She received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University.

Mr. Amrit Saxena
Mr. Amrit Saxena is the Founder & CEO of SaxeCap, an AI transformation and private equity investment firm that conducts AI-levered buyouts and transforms enterprises with AI & automation technology. Additionally, he has successfully founded & sold two AI companies (Stella.ai and Fancy That) and is an active angel investor in data, AI, web3, and enterprise software companies in Silicon Valley, investing in 200+ early-stage technology companies (including several unicorns and companies that have gone public), private businesses, and PE/VC funds.

Prior to SaxeCap, Amrit founded and scaled Stella, a talent-sourcing AI company, to over 150 large enterprise clients (including 10% of the Fortune 500), leading technology (data science, product, engineering, etc.) and operations (pre-sales, client integrations, etc.). Stella was sold to Cornell Capital and Trilantic Capital Partners in a $1B+ private equity transaction in 2021. Additionally, Amrit founded, scaled, and sold Fancy That, a retail AI company, to Palantir (NYSE: PLTR) in 2015. Between his two AI startups, Amrit has experience buying a company, selling two companies, and scaling teams from zero to 50+ people. Amrit previously worked at Bain & Company, Groupon, AmEx, and e2e Analytics and taught and researched AI at Stanford University & MIT.

He received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with a concentration in Artificial Intelligence and M.S. in Management Science & Engineering with a concentration in Operations Research, both from Stanford University with Distinction. Additionally, he has garnered numerous accolades, including being awarded sevenU.S. patents (relating to AI and optimization), a three-time finalist in the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), winner of the American Mathematics Competition (AMC), finalist in the United States Physics Olympiad (USAPhO), Congressional Award Gold Medalist, Research Science Institute (RSI) Scholar, American Regions Math League (ARML) winner, and was selected for the President’s Award for Academic Excellence and the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society while at Stanford.

Mr. James Shin
Mr. James Shinn is a general manager and entrepreneur with a series of technology start-ups in the fields of digital signal processing, cyber security, data analytics, autonomous mobility, cryptocurrency, and generative artificial intelligence. He has a Bachelor of Arts and Ph.D. from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard University.

BASIS Means Business: Wildcat Edition

February 17, 2023 by msnyder

Upper School students were invited to participate in a new initiative across all BASIS Independent Schools introduced earlier this year.

BASIS Means Business encourages our students to create and innovate as they develop an entrepreneurial business idea and present it in a Shark Tank-style competition.

One finalist from each network school will compete in the finals on Saturday, Feb. 25 (held via Zoom) and the winner will receive $10,000 toward their charity of choice.

On Wednesday, Feb. 15, Pierce B. (’24) and Scarlett S. (’24) presented their ideas to the Upper School student body and our three judges.

The panel of judges included Kirk Murphy (Intro to Business elective teacher), Paul Kim (Wildcat parent and businessman), and Ms. Ermakova (Subject Expert Teacher, Math & Economics).

The presentations were on:

Biowrap – an eco-conscious replacement for plastic wrap (Pierce)

GardEco – Gardens for the urban home (Scarlett)

Both students showed impressive composure and professionalism. As far as the judges were concerned, high marks for both students were given regarding their public speaking. During the Q&A portion, the judges didn’t hold back from asking critical and pointed questions not to be too harsh but because they saw the potential in the students and their ideas. For example, they challenged the students about R&D, the cost of having a zero-carbon facility, and how to monetize online content behind a paywall.

The benefit of this project extended beyond the participants to the audience of high school students. The presenters demonstrated to their peers what it means to lead and set the tone for future competitions. It is clear that while marketing strategies and overall business acumen will always grab everyone’s attention, the foundation of success relies on the manner in which you present yourself and your ideas.

…and the Wildcat advancing to the BASIS Means Business finals is:

Now, the judges agreed that Scarlett has what it takes to go against her competitors from BASIS Independent Brooklyn, McLean, Fremont, Silicon Valley, and Bellevue and bring home the big prize. She has access to all of the resources and support offered by the BASIS Independent Manhattan community to prepare her for success. We look forward to the finals this month, but even more, we are eager to watch this program grow over the years to come.

Mountaineers take First Place in Buzz Bowl and MATHCOUNTS!

February 8, 2023 by msnyder

This past weekend our students represented our school at two competitions, Buzz Bowl and MATHCOUNTS.

The Buzz Bowl is a local science competition and attracted 50 teams this year. Our team, made up of Grade 6 students including Alan Z., Richard Z., and Tianle Z., won eight games straight and took home first place in the Grade 5 – 6 division!

The MATHCOUNTS Competition Series is a national program where students have the opportunity to compete in math contests with peers in Grades 6 – 8. Students can compete on a team as well as individually.

Twelve of our mathletes from Grades 6 and 7 participated in the MATHCOUNTS Lake Washington Chapter Competition. Our team, made up of Grade 7 students Katherine L., Lixing S., Ryan C., and Kevin W., won first place in the Chapter Competition and will be advancing to the State Competition!

Additionally, four top individual students, Shuyin L., Sophia T., Timothy W., and Alexander Yu., from our school will be advancing to the State Competition!

Congratulations to our coaches, students, and families! We are proud of our Mountaineers and their achievements at both the Buzz Bowl and MATHCOUNTS. We wish them the best of luck at the State Competition.

Shout out to all of the Mountaineer mathletes that participated in the MATHCOUNTS competition and represented our school: Ryan C., Katherine L., Lixing S., Kevin W., Haoran W., Cindy L., Timothy W., Sara L., Sophia T., Kuan D., Shuyin L., and Alexander Y.

BASIS Independent Bellevue, a private school, opened with Grades 2 – 7 to start and will add a grade level each school year as we expand to a full middle and high school (Grades 5 – 12).

Science Bowl Team Wins Championship at Regional Competition

January 31, 2023 by msnyder

The BASIS Independent Bellevue Science Bowl Club just won the regional championship at the 2023 Middle School Regional Science Bowl!

Congratulations to all of our Mountaineer participants and winning students. Science Bowl is a competition that tests students’ knowledge and skills in various scientific subjects. In the true representation of our school values, P.A.C.E., our students worked hard and came out on top!

The Science Bowl was hosted at the University of Portland last weekend. Middle school students from across the Pacific Northwest including Oregon and Washington State participated.Both BASIS Independent Bellevue Science Bowl Team 1 and 2 performed outstandingly. Both teams entered the final double elimination round, which included the top 16 out of 38 teams.

Our regional champions will next travel to Washington, D.C. to attend the National Science Bowl in April.

Science Bowl Club participants:

Gordon B. (Grade 7)

Katherine L. (Grade 7)

Sara L. (Grade 7)

Lixing S. (Grade 7)

Kevin W. (Grade 7)

Timothy W. (Grade 7)

David X. (Grade 7)

Alan Z. (Grade 6)

Richard Z. (Grade 6)

Tianle Z. (Grade 6)

Regional Championship Team:

Gordon B. (Grade 7)

Katherine L. (Grade 7)

Kevin W. (Grade 7)

Timothy W. (Grade 7)

David X. (Grade 7)

Congratulations to our coaches, students, and families! Winning a regional competition is an oustanding achievement, and shows the hard work and dedication put in by the team members and coaches.

“Congratulations to our very first Science Bowl competition winners at BASIS Independent Bellevue,” says Ms. Krehe, BASIS Independent Bellevue’s auxiliary program manager, “I am proud of all the hard work our students and coaches have put into this extracurricular activity and look forward to all the great things students will accomplish at this school!”

We look forward to our Mountaineers representing BASIS Independent Bellevue at the national competition this spring!

BASIS Independent Bellevue, a private school, opened with Grades 2 – 7 to start and will add a grade level each school year as we expand to a full middle and high school (Grades 5 – 12).