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New Venture Fair 2026!

Another successful New Venture Fair is in the books! We had 67 teams from two universities and five high schools. Once again, the quality of the teams was better than the year before. Walking through the New Venture Fair, one could hear so many interesting conversations between the students and our community guests. Some highlights:

  • Khasanjon Bobokhojaev (Accounting), who has been competing since he was a first year student, won a best booth prize for his startup Career Compass.
  • Hope Gonzalez (Business Administration), who has accumulated more prizes than any other student despite her graduating early this year, had another win for Best Side Hustle.
  • Our Austrian Executive MBA Students continued their winning track record, with five teams taking home prizes. Plus, for the first time, two undergraduate exchange students from Austria also took home a prize!
  • Alona Sudorzhenko (MBA) won best booth prize for her startup ZAI, supported by a patent that Alona herself obtained.

A mountain of gratitude goes to our colleagues Kristin Bell and Mike Panesis - the hearts, minds, and hands behind the New Venture Fair, a small army of judges who completed a whole lot of deliberation in a short amount of time, our friends from California State University Channel Islands for participating (and winning more than one prize), our amazing participating high schools - ETHoS Entrepreneurship Academy (Thousand Oaks High School), Westlake High School, Newbury Park High School, Agoura High School, and Bakersfield Christian High.

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