PROVIDENCE – Six young entrepreneurs attracted a total of $3,160 in startup funding in this year’s Business Plan Competition at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center.

They were among a dozen contenders – 10th through 12th graders from the school’s Entrepreneurship-360 class – who presented their business plans today before investors, community members, fellow students and a panel of judges.

The Met, a Big Picture Learning School, emphasizes “real-world” learning that focuses on each student’s passions and interests.

“We connect our students to entrepreneurs,” said Dennis Littky, co-founder and co-director of both The Met and Big Picture Learning, “and through E360, they develop the tools they need to be innovators and entrepreneurs in the 21st century.” The 60-hour class is supported by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

This edition of the Center for Entrepreneurship’s Bi-Annual Business Plan Competition was supported by The Met, Big Picture Learning, the NFTE and Bill Daugherty, the Met’s Entrepreneurship-360 Chairman. The contest’s 2006 winners included The Big Picture Soda Company, which directs all proceeds to The Met’s scholarship fund, Dollars for Scholars. (READ MORE) Its all-natural sodas have found a growing audience.

Full start-up funding was awarded today for three proposals:

• Michael Carlino – a 10th grader advised by Michelle Cox – for his Carlino Vending Company, “to provide quality candy to people who want a snack on the go”: $835

• Carlos Garcia – a 12th grader advised by Greg Young – for his Mobile Cutz, a “fast, hospitable” on-the go grooming service: $275

• Talia Lundy – a 12th grader advised by Sharon Pacheco – for her Lundies Gourmet Cookies, “Spreading nutritional warmth, one cookie at a time”: $210

Carlino and Lundy also had been named first-place winners in the contest’s earlier in-class round, in which they were awarded $100 apiece.

Tentative funding was awarded today for two more plans, pending another round of revisions to address issues raised by the judges:

• Johnathan Quinonez – a 10th grader advised by Cliff Pereira – for his Change on the Go, “committed to giving the consumer unparalleled quality and a spectacular service at your convenience”: $300 (pending)

• Jamal Rose and Melvin Turcios – a pair of12th graders advised by Tim Shannon and Brian Matthews, respectively – for The Biz, their plan “to provide exceptional souvenirs, promotional items, gifts and clothing” highlighting the logos and visions of The Met and Big Picture Learning: $1,340 (pending)

Other proposals were presented by: Jonathan Caines, for a business called Red Light Advertising; Azriel Cocchini-Beck and Jordan Pimentel for Cybrid, a custom bag and T-shirt firm; Parish Muriel, for a screen-printing and graphic-design business called Urban Graphics; and David Valerio and Ismael Sanchez, for AC Entertainment, who pledged to “put in 110 percent more than our competitors” and remain “committed to our consumers, artists and venues.”

“We are so proud of all of our students' accomplishments at The Met,” Littky said in a statement. “The Business Plan Competition reflects how real-world learning ignites student passion, learning and success, setting them on a course of lifelong learning and pathways to satisfying careers.”

Their presentations – in the school’s Media & Arts Center – were judged by a panel that included Barrett Hazeltine, a professor at Brown University; Alan Harlem, director of social entrepreneurship at Brown’s Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service; Brian Meath, founder and CEO of Cause Investments and past president of global hedge-fund company OTA Asset Management; entrepreneur Jamie Siminoff, the CEO of Phonetag.com; T.J. Tetzlaff, coordinator of youth ventures at The Met; and Chris White, founder and CEO of Gamer Graffix, among others.

The review panel for “pending” proposals also will include Jodie Woodruff, director of The Met Center for Entrepreneurship, and Bill Daugherty, the E360 chairman, the school said.

Today’s winners will be eligible for the regional semifinals to be held at The Met on May 26, when they will go up against winners from New Bedford and Pawtucket. The semifinal’s three winners will proceed to the regional finals in Boston, from which three winners will go on to the national competition. Finally, two business plans will be selected as national winners. This year’s prizes at each level have yet to be announced.

Big Picture Learning, a nonprofit educational organization founded in Providence, now has more than 60 schools in the United States (including the six-school Met Center in Providence) plus partner organizations abroad. For more information, visit BigPicture.org.