 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Above: Missouri Collegiate EntrepreneurTM winners — (from left to right) Nathan Noot second place from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo; Sharon Bower, presenter, Saint Louis University; Jebel Jones, third place from Saint Louis University; Russell Jones, first place from Park College in Parkville, Mo.
Saint Louis University’s Collegiate Entrepreneur Awards Program recognizes students who have started their own businesses.
What do Steven Jobs, Michael Dell and Bill Gates have in common? They all started their companies while in college. This growing trend has been the subject of magazine and newspaper articles over the past several years. Today, across North America, undergraduates, who simultaneously juggle course work and payrolls, are being spotlighted by an awards program created by the Jefferson Smurfit Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (JSCES) at Saint Louis University.
Three Missouri students were honored for their business acumen at a lunch on Saint Louis University’s campus during Small Business Week in May. The 1999 Missouri Collegiate Entrepreneur™ is Russell Jones from Park College near Kansas City. This graduating senior started Digital Media Corp. three years ago. The company creates multimedia marketing tools, such as the video screens at movie house ticket offices and concession stands that show trailers of upcoming films. Second place went to Nathan Noot of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., whose business is Heavenly Creations Greenhouse, a retail greenhouse that provides bedding plants, trees, bushes and ornamental concrete. The St. Louis area produced the third-place winner, Jebel Jones, a freshman at Saint Louis University and owner of Spider’s Web Jewelry, specializing in custom jewelry made from semi-precious stones and metals.
The Missouri Collegiate Entrepreneur™ Awards program began in 1988. That year, three winners were honored at Saint Louis University. The program has continued each year since then, producing winners from schools throughout the region, including Harris-Stowe State College, Saint Louis University, Webster University and Washington University. Winners have been as likely to come from art school, communications, nursing or engineering, as from business schools.
In 1998 the North American Collegiate Entrepreneur™ Awards were born when the JSCES expanded the program to include other states, Canadian provinces and Mexico. Local administering entities are recruited (on a licensing basis) to hold their own state-wide or province-wide contests following the guidelines and using materials supplied by the JSCES. These administering bodies are generally entrepreneurship centers at colleges or universities. Participants search out their own local sponsorship, choose their own state/province judges and plan their own event to honor the winners.
The first-place winners from each participating state and province go head-to-head for the North American Awards. An international panel of judges chooses three winners: overall winner, the most creative/innovative business, and the business with the most social impact. The first-place winner’s prize is $5,000, and the winner’s faculty nominator receives $1,000.
Winners from the first North American Awards in 1998 have distinguished themselves. One is in the process of taking his computer company public, another was chosen as a Rhodes Scholar. A wheel-chair-bound winner is raising money to expand manufacturing of his “stand-up wheelchair” for the disabled. Yet another is exporting his unique greeting and note cards, using handicrafts of the natives in his home state of Chiapis, Mexico.
Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles administers the awards program for the state of California. Fred Kiesner, Conrad Hilton Chair of Entrepreneurship at Loyola, says, “Wow! We got involved in this program to honor deserving entrepreneurial students in California. The big bonus we didn’t expect is a lot of neat publicity, for our university and its entrepreneurship program, among all the schools in California.” Saint Louis University, as sponsor of the North American Awards, shares in the publicity generated by all those participating.
|
 |
In 1999, in addition to Missouri and California, the program was administered in Nebraska, Mexico, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Utah, Oregon, Minnesota and Ontario, Canada. Students from states not represented are able to submit entries in an at-large states category. For the 2000 awards, the third year of the program, more and more states have expressed interest in participating.
Edward Jones has been the national sponsor since the inception of the program two years ago. Bob Ciapciak, Partner, says, “Edward Jones’ investment representatives all run entrepreneurial enterprises, so it is natural for us to be involved with these awards for collegiate entrepreneurs.”
Sharon Bower, creator and administrator of the North American Awards, has enjoyed watching the program grow over the past 12 years. “I felt the concept was just too good to keep confined to Missouri, so with the help of Edward Jones’ sponsorship, we were able to expand it throughout North America.” She says, “Because the JSCES has built an international reputation for delivering quality programs, we have been able to recruit other states and provinces to join with us in this project. And it has provided us the opportunity to flex our own ‘entrepreneurial’ muscles as we have planned and built the licensing operation, partnering with other entrepreneurship centers.” Bower has traveled to Mexico to promote the program and will be in Canada soon to work on expansion there.
The North American Awards are presented in Chicago during the annual Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization (CEO!) Conference in the Fall. The awardees are feted before a group of their peers and faculty from schools across North America.
The 1999 North American winner is Maisie Jane Bertagna, a sophomore business major at Butte College in Oroville, Calif. Maisie Jane’s California Sunshine Products manufactures a food product line of 12 different dry-roasted, flavored almonds, caramel corn and almonds and almond butter. She has increased profits by almost 100 percent a year for three years, having begun her business while in high school. She markets through brochures and distributes to wholesale accounts of major grocery stores, as well as through direct marketing. Bertagna took advantage of a program called the WTC (Work Training Center) and employs the disabled in her food manufacturing plant.
The 1999 award for Most Creative/Innovative goes to Clint! Runge, a senior at the University of Nebraska/Lincoln, majoring in architecture and advertising. Archrival Inc. is a digital design and visualization firm specializing in creating original graphic products including 3D visualization, animation, interactive media design and graphic design.
And finally, the award for Most Social Impact goes to Estaban Gonzales Guzman, a senior at the Instituto Technologico y de Estudios Superiores (I.T.E.S.M.) in Monterrey, Mexico. This business administration major created CREDIPAISA, which is dedicated to selling construction materials on credit, focusing on low resource individuals, assisting families to improve or remodel their homes.
The JSCES intends to continue to expand to have coverage in all states and provinces throughout North America. A World Wide Web site is in the planning stages to help promote the program to all undergraduates.
|
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
