MTA LEAD, an entrepreneurship program designed to empower MTA talmidim with the ability to build on their entrepreneurial ideas and create meaningful and sustainable business projects while gaining lasting business and communal leadership skills, announced its winner for the 2018-2019 school year. Sophomore Akiva Kra of Teaneck won the competition after presenting his final business plan for modular sneakers to Sy Syms School of Business Associate Dean Michael Strauss.

Akiva developed a model for sneakers with tops that feature a unique zipper component, making them interchangeable for different designs while still using the same sole. As the competition winner, Akiva received seed money to help develop his product, as well as continued mentoring from Dean Strauss and industry leaders.