Greensburg — Morgan Tomson dreams of turning Tomson Cattle Donor Services into a lucrative enterprise for producing, harvesting and storing cow embryos.

The South Decatur High School (SDHS) Junior conceived Tomson Cattle Donor Services as part the "Maverick Challenge" high school business competition.

Tomson is a one-woman team ("Maverick" teams may be composed of one to three students) who doesn't appear to have jumped blindly into her business; in fact, she sounds like something of a bovine-fertility expert.

This reporter, in fact, was forced to ask her to "dumb it down" a bit when describing her prospective enterprise.

"My business is a donor-housing facility for cattle," she said. "The cow is artificially inseminated and injected with hormones, which causes her to produce more than one embryo; that's called super-ovulating."

After ovulation, Tomson further explained, the embryos are extracted in a process known as "flushing" and then frozen for later use.

The process is geared toward helping cattle farmers reproduce specimens with favorable genetics.

For instance, a beef farmer might own a particular line of cows that produces high-quality cuts of meat. Tomson's proposed business would help that farmer reproduce his or her genetically-superior cow multiple times, thus growing or solidifying the business.

Ashley Hungate, who oversees the Maverick Challenge in Decatur County, explained that the contest allows students to develop ideas for a small business into a complete business plan.

According to the competition's website, the program strives to help students learn and develop entrepreneurial skills and thereby become aware of additional career opportunities after graduation; Maverick fosters mentoring, networking and also allows students to work alongside business owners within their communities.

SDHS Junior Morgan Grote and her team have found Maverick to be a sobering, exciting window into real-world business.

"I've wanted to be a pastry chef for a long time," Grote said. "I plan to attend culinary school sometime after high school. I actually run a small pastry business out of my parent's house now."

Grote explained that operating Sassy Sweet Bakery - her team's prospective business - is a huge, overwhelming prospect compared to running a small, out-of-the-house pastry endeavor.

"At our age," Grote explained, "you don't fully grasp the expense of running a business."

Grote's teammates, SDHS Senior, Alex Ritchie and Junior, Jordan Kalley, agreed.

"All the expenses really add up," Ritchie said.

Kalley, who plans on earning a college degree in advertising and computer technology, called Maverick a great warm-up for life after college.

Greensburg Community High School (GCHS) Junior Megan Lozier and Sophomore Matt Russ have created a consumer ratings website called A-Plus Ratings.

Russ said the genesis for A-Plus Ratings started with the May storms.

"After the storms," he explained, "there were random salesmen going door-to-door, selling everything from siding and roofing, to hammers and screwdrivers."

"Many of them were independent contractors or came from companies nobody had heard of. Nobody knew them," Lozier agreed.

"A-Plus allows people to rate companies and products they've used and write reviews," Russ said. "That way people are less likely to get ripped off."

GCHS seniors Conlin Durbin and Craig Schebler call their prospective business CloudMachine.

Durbin described the business as a "small business setup company."

"We offer technical solutions to companies through cloud computing," he explained. "We build websites and offer customer support - among other services. We focus on businesses in high-risk areas (natural-disaster zones)."

Similar to Grote, SDHS seniors Danielle Wenning, Abby Saylor and Tyler Murphy have created a business based off an existing enterprise.

"Our business is called Photo Shoppe," Wenning said, adding, "Yes, the name's a play on that other ÔPhoto Shop.'"

The three seniors explained that their business takes for-hire photos and videos of high-school events and activities.

"We kind of already do this for our school," Wenning explained, "so we thought we'd build on that."

SDHS English and Journalism teacher, Cathy Tichenor, called the Photo Shoppe team three of her best and brightest students.

"They work on school publications and cover lots of school events," Tichenor said. "This seemed like a natural extension."

The "Findaria" team, composed of SDHS seniors Levi Wamsley, Julie Mapes and Levi Franklin, have created one of the competition's more practical products.

"Our product is a GPS locator," Mapes explained. "We sell a tiny GPS memory chip that's inserted or attached to any kind of device - cell phone, keys, etc.. People can then log on to our website and find their missing items."

Wamsley clarified that Findaria cost users a one-time fee for the device and lifetime access. He added that the idea for the business started in the class of SDHS technology teach Kelly Fox.

"We love technology," Wamsley said, "and Mrs. Fox encouraged us to create a technology product."

Like Tichenor, Fox serves as an informal advisor for all of the remaining Maverick teams.

According to Hungate, the final, county-level judging will be held from 8:30 to 11 a.m., Feb. 9, at The Learning Center Room in Greensburg, located at 422 East Central Avenue; the top two teams will be announced Feb. 10.

"The top two teams," Hungate said, "will compete at the regional level in Columbus at the end of February."

The overall winner will win $10,000, while winners at the county level receive $500, Hungate said.



Contact: Robert Cox at 812-663-3111 x7011.