Ashland students learn how to make dough

At Ashland University, flour and eggs are the ingredients of entrepreneurial activity.

The university has designated some of its grant money from The Burton D. Morgan Foundation to help student organizations help themselves and others. For one student organization, making pies was the way to make money.

There are currently more than 100 student organizations on campus, and most AU students participate in one or more. To receive funding from the university activities budget, these student organizations are expected to plan and conduct activities furthering the educational purpose and mission of the university. The organizations also must participate in community service projects each semester.

The "Morgan Entrepreneurial Dollars" grant program is helping student organizations to become entrepreneurial and self-sustaining. With training and support from Read Wakefield, Director of the AU Morgan Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, the student organizations seeking grants prepare a mini-business plan describing their product or service, their marketing strategy, and their business and financial model. They also explain how they plan to use the grant funds they are requesting to activate the business.

In November, the 35 members of the AU National Society of Minorities in Hospitality developed a pre-Thanksgiving pie sale to support their organization's educational activities and community service projects. With the grant funds it received, the society purchased pie ingredients that students used to bake the pies in AU food service facilities.

The newly formed AU Guitar Club has ten members and plans to earn revenue by performing at AU and community events and by producing and selling a CD of member performances. The group's community service projects will include providing charity guitar lessons and sponsoring guest artists and speakers at AU. The "Morgan Entrepreneurial Dollars" grant to the Guitar Club will be used to purchase new amplifiers for club member performances.