In brief...
Even Mr. Ed likes cookies
A plan to bake all natural, preservative-free, certified-organic horse cookies won the second annual Idea and Innovation Challenge this year at Lake Erie College. Students from two classes - New Venture Creation for the Equine Industry and New Venture Planning and Development - submitted business plans. Eight finalists were then selected to present their business plans to a panel of judges. The plan to sell organic horse cookies, which would be made to order, was submitted by Ruth Mallard, an Equine Entrepreneurship major. Lauren Boucher, the second place finisher who is a dance major and entrepreneurship minor, submitted a plan to create a studio to teach proper techniques to help dancers avoid injury and maintain cardio fitness.
If you can keep your head...
Entrepreneurship students at Hiram College took advantage of what has been labeled a "re-capitation" ceremony to make some money. The rainmaker, in this case, is a sandstone statue of former U.S. President James A. Garfield, who also served as Hiram's president. The statue was dedicated in the spring, but shortly thereafter, the statue was decapitated. Garfield remained headless until a few weeks ago, when college officials say a "good Samaritan" returned the head to the Hiram police. A "re-capitation" ceremony followed. During that event, some of Hiram's more entrepreneurial students were doing a brisk business selling T-shirts that read: "Get aHEAD at Hiram College."
Room for more
Lake Erie College and Hiram College have joined the Entrepreneurship Education Consortium, a coalition of public and private schools in Northeast Ohio collaborating to make college students more aware of entrepreneurial opportunities. The coalition sponsors a week-long entrepreneurship immersion camp each summer, in which teams from each school compete and learn about marketing, financial, ethical and legal issues involved in starting a business. The summer program, supported by a grant from The Burton D. Morgan Foundation, rotates among the member schools. Lake Erie and Hiram join Ashland University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, John Carroll University, Kent State University, and the University of Akron.
Wooster discovery soaks up grant money
A company that hopes to market a material to clean up contaminated groundwater has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Innovation Fund. The grant, administered by the Lorain County Community College Foundation and largely funded though Ohio's Third Frontier Program, went to Absorbent Materials Co. of Wooster. The glass material, which swells to absorb organic contaminants, was discovered in a chemistry lab at The College of Wooster. Entrepreneurship students at the college have been helping to bring the material, called Osorb, to market. Chemistry professor Paul Edmiston has also received a $136,269 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue his work on the project.
New "CEOs" at John Carroll
On October 23, the John Carroll University chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization inducted 14 new members at a special luncheon ceremony at the Mayfield Country Club in South Euclid. JCU Academic Vice President John Day presented the framed certificates to each of the inductees. The keynote address at the luncheon was by Professor Jeff Cornwall of Belmont University. His talk focused on what entrepreneurship can contribute to the university's broader program.
Also, this fall was the kick-off for John Carroll's new Interdisciplinary Minor in Entrepreneurship. More than 50 students enrolled in Entrepreneurship 101 - Creativity, Invention & Innovation - the first course in the minor. The majority of faculty members teaching ER 101 are members of the College of Arts & Sciences at JCU, and they have reported excellent results in this new course offering.
Denison students energized
More than 20 students from Denison University heard first-hand recently about Ohio's first Green Enterprise Zone. The students learned how two recent college grads refused to just sit by when the biggest employer in their hometown of Wilmington (DHL, once Airborne Express) announced it was leaving town and taking more than 7,000 jobs. Mark Rembet and Taylor Stuckert worked to create Energize Clinton County, which is Ohio's first Green Enterprise Zone. They told the Denison students how they are working to attract green businesses to rebuild the town's economy.
JumpStart connects with higher education
Following its annual meeting on October 9, JumpStart launched its Higher Education Collaboration Council to establish greater connectivity between JumpStart's activities and higher education. Nearly 20 colleges and universities were represented at the meeting. The Council is working to identify programmatic partnerships between JumpStart and Council members and to build communications tools to connect the campuses with collaboration and commercialization opportunities. As its first step, the Council is working to establish a Web presence to share events, ideas, and opportunities across the region and beyond. Burton D. Morgan President Deborah Hoover serves as chair of the Council.
