Student Case Studies
Portia Hartono
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AGE - 16
ENTREPRENEUR
ED-TECH
An example of solving your own problems. Portia had trouble finding meaningful internships as a high school student. She decided to take matters into her own hands and built her company; InternEd. This is a company focused on democratizing internships for high-school students through virtual, project-based internships.
She has created a unique value proposition by combining training and internships that allow companies to get a different perspective from students at zero cost to the company.
COMPANIES IN THE PIPELINE





Sofia and Luciana Franco
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AGE - 13 & 12
ENTREPRENEURS
FASHION
A story of how two teenagers who love fashion were able to bring their designs and style into the world. Despite a raging pandemic, Sofia and Luciana set up HandOverChic; A company focused on tie-dye clothing and accessories.
The Ethos of their company is fashion made for teens, by teens. In 6 months, they had sold through their website, Instagram, and closed B2B deals with a women's sports team. They were able to meet the head of marketing at Louis Vuitton and pitch their business for guidance.
COMPANY STATISTICS
$14,000
8-month Revenue
54%
Net-Profit Margin
36
SKUs
6
Countries of Operation
Ardian Sutardja
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AGE - 14
AUTHOR
Ardian loves politics and writing. He has managed to take his passions and aim big. In 2019, his book, A 13 year-olds take on today's world, a collection of critical essays was published by Blooming Twig Books LLC.
He has also written an article that has been published by Thrive Global, a community forum that is a subsidiary of the Huffington Post. He is currently the Editor-in-chief of Student Voices, a publication started at Ascend Now to showcase student writing and promote student opinions.


Rayden Ignacio Yap
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AGE - 14
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR
APPAREL
Rayden is an extremely versatile student. He writes, debates, and contributes to society through service. At the start of the pandemic, he noticed that there were a lot of people who lacked access to sanitary kits and couldn't afford them because they lost their jobs.
That led him to create Filtro. His non-profit organization generates revenue by selling custom, hand-painted masks. He donates all of the profits towards distributing sanitization kits. Filtro has also helped many people who lost their jobs earn a living wage.
COMPANY STATISTICS
$15,000+
12-month Revenue
2,000+
Units Sold
2,000+
Kits Donated
Annika Mada Rachmat
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AGE - 16
SERIAL SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR
MULTIPLE INDUSTRIES
Annika is a serial social entrepreneur. She started a thrift store on Instagram called ThriftedGalore which re-sold over 400 pieces of clothing and won the Ascend Now Women's Entrepreneurship Competition with her idea of CircleShare, an app that helps students cope with their mental health issues.
Annika currently runs an organization called FoodFlip. FoodFlip is a social project that maximizes the use of decent food leftovers, by distributing them to those in need. Here is their impact.
COMPANY STATISTICS
$35,000
Worth food donated
4
Retail partners
700+
KG of fruit donated
20,000+
Pieces of bread donated
Alicia Nguyen
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AGE - 14
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR
FITNESS & HEALTH
Alicia is a basketball player for the Singapore American School Eagles and has been a fitness enthusiast all her life. She noticed how people were struggling to remain fit during the pandemic and offered a solution that will hold them accountable.
Fitness for Goodness aims to be the non-profit platform to spread the love for fitness, and empower fitness to be a tool for raising awareness and funds for those in need.
COMPANY STATISTICS
$12,505
Raised from Campaigns
6,016
People Served
632
Volunteers in total
Patrick William Liong
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AGE - 16
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR
MULTIPLE INDUSTRIES
Patrick William Liong has always felt the moral obligation to contribute to society and create a long-lasting impact through social work. But he couldn't decide on helping in just one way. This led to the creation of Operation Drip. A multi-project non-profit organization.
To start off with, they are looking at education, sustainability, and a pay-it-forward program. The ethos behind Operation Drip is to bring the community closer together by providing an avenue for people to help.
COMPANY STATISTICS
$10,240
Donated
81
Students taught
126
Trees planted
Dia Saikamala & Yuha Masuda

AGE - 16
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS
SOCIAL IMPACT
When Dia and Yuha learned about the difficult reality many domestic helpers face as migrant workers, they were determined to help in any way possible. They began by interviewing a group of previous domestic helpers, now asylum seekers, to learn about where they came from, their motives, challenges and how they overcame them.
Connect Helpers, is a student-led initiative that aims to create a welcoming community by empowering domestic helpers and asylum seekers through educational workshops, activities, and support. Their vision is to have a community where migrant minorities can thrive.
COMPANY STATISTICS
15,000+ HKD
Donated
2
Donation Drives
2
Article Publications
Moone Nang
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AGE - 11
ENTREPRENEUR
FOOD & HEALTH
Moone's Cuisine is Moone Nang's dream business. When Moone was younger, she was diagnosed with a heart problem and the doctor said she needed to eat healthily in order to recover. Since eating healthily was all she could do, Moone's family found multiple ways to making it enjoyable.
This sparked Moone's passion for cooking. Her vision is to build a company that can supply high quality, healthy food to all the people in Singapore and then expand to the rest of the world. Moone is a great story-teller and can articulate her thoughts well. She has previously won two Ascend Now Bullpen events!
COMPANY STATISTICS
1,160 USD
Revenue
34%
Profit Margin
12
Product Options


Alexander Den Hartog
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AGE - 17
MATHS
ACADEMICS
Alex arrived at Ascend Now with low results in his maths exams. As an IBDP student, Alex understood mathematical concepts but struggled to apply them. As he began to work on his math literacy, throughout the program his confidence improved significantly. In fact, his grade went from a 2 to a 6 in just a couple of months.
Working on strategies and techniques to pass from knowledge to understanding, Alex used acronyms to remember concepts, solved real-life situations, and met with his Ascend Now coach once a week to practice exercises.
RESULTS:

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