EMMITSBURG, Md., April 21, 2026 — Mount St. Mary’s University hosted the 2026 Loiello Pitch Competition on Monday evening, allowing student entrepreneurs to present their original business ideas to an accomplished panel of judges. This competition provided students the opportunity to compete for startup funding through a total prize pool of $7,500, generously donated by Paul Palmieri, C’92 and Diane (Loiello) Palmieri, C’83.
Beyond the awards, the event provided students with an invaluable experience, allowing many participants to pitch their ideas within a three-minute time frame in front of a live audience for the first time while learning from judge feedback and the challenges of public speaking.
After a competitive evening of presentations and calculating the judges’ final scoring, we are proud to announce Morgan Ortega, C‘28 as the 2026 Loiello Pitch Competition Champion. Morgan will use the $6,000 grand prize to help launch production of her tea brand, Chalm Tea. She has developed two self-brewed tea blends—one for daytime and one for nighttime—designed to provide consumers with a variety of health and wellness benefits. In second place, Sophia Servagno, C’26 earned the $1,000 prize for The Honeycomb, a coffee shop and bakery community that serves nutrient dense, protein and fiber focused baked goods and beverages to a creative community without compromising on palatability. Tied for third place were Najhayne Watson, C’27 and Mary Gutshall, C’26, who each earned recognition for their patentable ideas and will split the $500 third-place prize. Because both contestants are currently in the patent process, details of their ideas cannot be publicly disclosed at this time.
The university congratulates this year’s winners and encourages all participants to use this experience as motivation to keep refining their ideas, learning from the process, and continuing their entrepreneurial journey. We welcome all returning students to compete again next year and look forward to growing the competition with even more student entrepreneurs in the future.
