{"id":811233,"date":"2026-05-21T02:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T02:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/811233\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T02:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T02:27:14","slug":"houston-isd-students-pitch-businesses-at-nrg-arena-in-hustle-tank-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/811233\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston ISD students pitch businesses at NRG Arena in ‘Hustle Tank’ competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON<\/strong> \u2013 Some Houston ISD students will take over NRG Arena Wednesday night \u2014 not for sports or concerts \u2014 but to pitch businesses they built from the ground up.<\/p>\n

The \u201cHustle Tank\u201d competition is part of the G-Unity Business Lab, a partnership between HISD and rapper Curtis \u201c50 Cent\u201d Jackson\u2019s foundation. <\/p>\n

Students from six HISD high schools will step into the \u201cShark Tank\u201d-style event, hoping their business ideas would win over a panel of judges \u2014 all while picking up life skills along the way.<\/p>\n

For months, students studied everything from financial literacy to marketing, then built full business concepts with guidance from mentors. Organizers say the experience opened doors many students had never even imagined.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many of our students say that they had never thought about how to even open a bank account, let alone how to open a business checking account, and that\u2019s huge,\u201d said Elizabeth Martin, G-Unity executive director.<\/p>\n

The G-Unity Business Lab collaboration launched in 2021 with three schools and has since expanded to six. More than 800 students applied this year to be part of the competition.<\/p>\n

HISD Director of Special Programs Patrice Allen says the program is about closing a gap that exists in the communities these schools serve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an equity gap that exists in the neighborhoods that these campuses are in,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIt\u2019s that whole idea that if you give a man to fish, he eats today but if you teach a man to fish, he eats for life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the competitors was 11th grader Irmani Garcia, whose team \u2014 \u201cThe Reading Rose\u201d \u2014 paired personalized books with custom flower bouquets.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertain people like me won\u2019t get this chance ever,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI have been in some rooms where people say to leave, some rooms where I don\u2019t belong. This is teaching me how to find my spot in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s judging panel includes Curtis \u201c50 Cent\u201d Jackson, along with leaders from the Astros Foundation, Metro, CenterPoint, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and more.<\/p>\n

Winners will receive seed money and resources to help turn their ideas into real companies. But for organizers, the biggest takeaway extends well beyond the competition floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s talent everywhere, talent is universal. We have amazing students here that are going to go far and do amazing things in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Some Houston ISD students will take over NRG Arena Wednesday night \u2014 not for sports or…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":811234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[6386,6263,4345,6267,50,18146,303045,358,3187],"class_list":["post-811233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-harris-county","tag-hisd","tag-houston","tag-houston-isd","tag-news","tag-nrg-stadium","tag-reliant-stadium","tag-texas","tag-tx"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116610206837916882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}