Barrington village board honors innovative high school students

Barrington village board members this week honored two teenagers for being among the state's top high school business innovators of the year.

Incoming Barrington High School seniors Hannah Sullivan and Allison Lacy won $1,000 in the Celebrating High School Innovators awards program for their project Tilt Factor, a self-tilting water cooler stand geared for sports teams.

The awards program was created by Illinois State University, Millikin University and Pontiac Township High School.

In addition to a village proclamation recognizing their achievement, Hannah and Allison were presented with a sign that'll go up at Barrington High. The sign reads: "Home of Hannah Sullivan & Allison Lacy. Celebrating High School Innovators Award Winners," with the logos of Millikin, ISU and Pontiac High at the bottom.

They were students in Barrington High's INCubatoredu entrepreneurship program. The INCubatoredu curriculum, created by village nonprofit Uncharted Learning, was launched nearly six years ago at Barrington High and has expanded to 230 schools in 22 states, Mexico and Japan.

Hannah and Allison were in INCubatoredu for the maximum two years allowed at Barrington High.

"Unfortunately, we can't be in it for our senior year," Hannah said, "but it was an amazing opportunity and I would do it all over again if I had a choice."

Tilt Factor was created in an effort to solve the problem of water or other liquids not flowing from a cooler's spout after reaching a certain low level. Placed under the container, the Tilt Factor plastic stand goes forward as a liquid level drops, allowing for almost every drop to be extracted and preventing waste.