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Thursday, March 28, 2024
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"One Year Later, Carter Still on 'First Track'"

Panasci Winner Says Despite Struggles, He Is Ready to Succeed


As the competition for the next Panasci Awards kicked off last week, last year's winner of the $25,000 prize says the company he started with the award is poised for growth.

Scott Carter, who won last year's top prize, spoke Wednesday to potential Panasci competitors at Jacobs Management Center to give an account of his experiences with First Tracks, Inc.

The awards, sponsored by the School of Management's Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, grant $40,000 of startup capital to two UB graduates who are starting a local business.

Carter, a 2002 graduate of the School of Management whose undergraduate degree was in chemical engineering, said that he encourages potential entrants to stick with their ideas but to expect the unexpected.

"I'd tell potential entrants to find a good idea -- something that's needed -- and think big and be flexible," he said.

Carter's "good idea" was First Tracks, Inc., which is early literacy monitoring and reporting software that allows elementary school teachers and administrators to monitor their students' progress.

According to Carter, it is based on the Internet, and it enables teachers and administrators to track and report on the progress of students on many different levels, from an individual level all the way to a district-wide level.

The new national Reading First program, part of the "No Child Left Behind" initiative signed by President George W. Bush in 2002, creates demand for such software, according to Carter.

"New York State's part of the program requires four to seven different assessment tests from different assessment companies," said Carter. "We have a format that can accept results from any of those tests and create easy to use reports with that information."

Carter said that his mother, Rozanne Carter Burton, a retired schoolteacher with 30 years experience with elementary school literacy programs, inspired him to create First Tracks. Burton identified the need for this type of program and designed the format of the First Tracks program.

Since its incorporation in November of 2002, Carter said that the growth and expansion of First Tracks has been a bit slower than he expected - despite having three area school districts committed and thousands more prospects across the country - but it was poised to grow exponentially.

Carter said 118 schools in the area have to have Reading First grants and First Tracks is in great position to obtain the business of many of those schools.

Carter is not yet able to make First Tracks his full-time job -- he works on the project in the evenings after a day of work at Sterling Fluid Systems on Grand Island.

The Carter family also welcomed a new baby recently, adding another priority to Carter's already full life.

"It's tough, juggling a new company, a new baby and a full-time job," he said. "But when you find the right idea, you have to jump on it and see it through."





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