Popping Kernels of Ideas

It was April Fool's Day at The College of Wooster. But there was no confusing the aroma coming from the entrepreneurship center on the third floor of Morgan Hall.

Popcorn. Theater popcorn. Fresh, buttery, and with plenty of salt. Soon students began filtering into the entrepreneurship center, picking up bags of popcorn and taking seats around a coffee table.

Thursday afternoons at The College of Wooster took on a new atmosphere this past semester, where ideas flew around like the kernels of corn in the machine.

James Levin, the entrepreneurship center's new director, came to Wooster with a background in theater - performing and planning events - as well as practicing law. One of his first acts was to buy the popcorn machine for the entrepreneurship center. The students followed.

"When the third floor of Morgan smells like a movie theater lobby, students are excited, anticipating the next round," says Levin. "One can feel the excitement. Something - it could be unexpected, it could be outlandish, it could be dull and practical - but something is about to happen."

This semester, the students began planning for a Speakeasy Art Salon in Wooster. When they lost out on getting a lease for their initial location, they began eyeing a closed cinema in town. Each week, they meet, toss around ideas and move forward.

Levin likens the ideas to the popping corn. The kernels sometimes land in unusual places. Sometimes they are perfect. "Sometimes burnt to a crisp, sometimes not fully actualized."

But always popping.

"The E-center is basically my second home," says junior Patryk Tenario of Texas, who co-owns an internet music and apparel company. "I am a very creative and outwardly thinking individual and am also very entrepreneurship minded," he said. "But I don't feel that those aspects of my personality are utilized in classes as much as they are at the E-center or several entrepreneurship classes we have."

Another student comes to the Thursday meetings because she said they offer an alternative to the memorizing and testing required in many other classes.

By April Fool's Day, the semester was winding down. So Levin arranged for a special guest. Becky Cummings teaches at Cuyahoga Community College and is a creative coordinator who runs workshops designed to improve communication. In this case, it included tossing around a Koosh ball and talking about personal creativity.

Levin says the enthusiasm the students bring every week "is heartening and affirming for all."

photo credit: Matt Dilyard/College of Wooster