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Student Entrepreneurs Take Recycling Business To International Competition

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Some of the kids at City Charter High School are volunteer recyclers, a student-run business that led their classmates to a national championship and competition in Moscow for the World Cup presented by SAGE: "Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship."

Senior Morgan Crist led the team of six, with a business plan that took second place in the worldwide competition.

"Our business is called SEED, which stands for Students Encouraging Environmentalism Downtown," she says. "And it's the recycling business in our schools."

This is the second year in a row that they've won the national championship.

Last year, they were unable to go to the international competition in Nigeria because of travel restrictions.

But this time, even the standoff between Russia and Ukraine couldn't keep them out of Moscow.

The team made their pitch to an international panel of judges. SAGE adviser Maureen Anderson says it's a huge accomplishment for kids who lack the advantages of many at private schools.

"We pull from students from around the Pittsburgh area, the City of Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. Over 60 percent of our students are socially, economically disadvantaged," says Anderson.

Senior DeVaughn Davis says the best part was meeting kids from 13 other countries.

"We all come from different parts of the world, different backgrounds, but we all got along. We were all on the same page. We all clicked. It was beautiful," Davis said.

Though a team from Ireland won the final round, Morgan Crist says, "We're such good friends with everyone; it felt like we all won."

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