Tutors are brought in to help kids get the extra attention they need. But in the ultra-competitive and challenging Bellevue School District, sometimes tutors aren’t even enough. But what about tutors who are also Bellevue School District teachers?

This is the premise of Atlas Academics, a team of Sammamish High School students who recently took first place in the high school division of the 10th annual Washington State University Business Plan Competition. The three-student team of Elizabeth Arnold, Alex Honn and Nick Phillips won a $5,000 prize for their idea.

The hypothetical program would allow students to visit a company website, and pick through a number of options – core classes, advanced, or SAT prep, etc. – and the site would match the student with the right teacher.

“We started to add up the potential risks versus profit, and we found that this could be a very successful company, and if something was to go wrong hypothetically we had low start up fees too, so only a small amount of loss versus a more expensive product-based company would have,” Honn said.

Atlas Academics was one of the three Sammamish High School teams that fared well in the competition. Maggie MacMichael and Marko Hynateyko received a $2,000 prize for their idea, Wanna Waffle, a restaurant featuring all waffle dishes, including replacing the bun with a waffle. Fourth place in the division went to Edgar Uribe, Demri Horton and Ryley Martin for their plan, Hypersonic Drive, a track that teachers drivers rally car techniques such as drifting in a safe, monitored environment.

The Sammamish teams were a few of hundreds of high school and college groups that descend upon Pullman every year for the business competition. Each year the contest gives away more than $100,000 to students. Students get invaluable experience by presenting a business plan and taking questions from a panel of judges, an environment similar to what they would face when trying to find investments in the future.

It was innovation and practicality that stood out for the Sammamish teams. Atlas Academics took a simple idea, while the Wanna Waffle concept is unique. It will certainly cost more than the $2,000 the team won for the idea, but they are confident the concept could succeed. It would be placed on Market Street in Kirkland, and be a family-friendly meeting place, said MacMichael.

“Everyone is always looking for a new type of food place to try out that is a new, enjoyable experience different from what they’re used to, and Wanna Waffle is exactly that. No where can you find a quick-service gourmet quality restaurant that specializes specifically in Belgian waffles, especially in the Northwest,” she said.

The Sammamish teams experienced as much success as any school in the competition, and Atlas Academics was even offered a $10,000 investment from a judge. They are thinking about dedicating their summer to the project and building the business. All three groups gained invaluable resume pieces for college applications, and an idea what it will be like to woo investors in their future endeavors.

“Having this experience helped us learn how to put together good presentations and what it is actually like to present ideas to investors and ask for money on the real world,” said Horton of the Hypersonic Drive team. “Even in our core classes we’ve never had this big of a project that expected so much out of us and made all the students rise to the challenge.”