Students in the Entrepreneur Scholars program seek business advice from professionals over fall break
Senior Daniel Cebula and Abraham Barajas and junior Fatima Ruiz Villatoro pose with Cousin Anthony from Cake Boss durning their trip to New York. (Photo courtesy of Fatima Ruiz Villatoro)
By Hannah Kintner, Staff Writer kintner13@up.edu
How does a ride around New York sound? Or a walk through Central Park? Maybe you would prefer to see Jerry Seinfeld or take in a Broadway play. Students from the Entrepreneur Scholars (E-Scholars) program were able to do these things and more over fall break, but what's more is they got to do them while setting themselves up for a better future.
For the past 13 years, the E-scholars have been using Fall Break as an opportunity to experience the real world of business networking in New York City. The E-scholars program at UP was started 15 years ago by Robin Anderson, the dean of the Pamplin School of Business, and has been developing students' skill sets and mind-sets around entrepreneurship ever since.
This year, 20 business-minded students from all majors participate in the program. With the guidance of five business professors, they are doing all they can to learn business strategies and come up with feasible business ideas.
"This program is all about making things happen," Peter Rachor, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, said.
In the first semester of the program, students explore business opportunities and learn the value of networking by attending events put on by the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN), by interacting with mentors brought in by the faculty and by setting up business meetings with professionals to help guide their business decisions.
Before Fall Break, all of the E-scholars developed their own business ideas, and set up three meetings with business professionals in New York from their desired field. Social work major Jordan Mattson's business plan is a nonprofit, intending to lift the spirits of terminally ill children by remodeling and redecorating their bedrooms.
"It's kind of like a mix between Extreme Home Makeover and Make-a-Wish," Mattson said. "I also read a study that said simple rearrangement of the room can actually improve health, so by totally revamping it, ideally it would help them heal a little bit too."
While in New York, Mattson met with the head of the Make-a-Wish foundation's New York chapter, as well as other nonprofit organizations to learn how a nonprofit organization is funded. Meanwhile, other students used their time in New York to learn how factories are started and industries are built. Junior Fatima Ruiz Villatoro met with Emeric Harney, the third generation tea blender of Harney and Sons Teas, to learn how to become a fine tea distributer. Her business idea is a company distributing high quality teas to hotels and restaurants in the Northwest.
"I studied abroad in Spain last semester and one of the things I really enjoyed was having afternoon tea with my host mom, and so coming back we drink so much coffee here it's just so different and it's something that I really, really miss," Villatoro said.
Students were on their own for the majority of the trip, forcing them to gain independence in the business world.
"I don't think I saw half my group until the plane ride back," Mattson said. "My favorite part was just experiencing real life for a little bit. You're going to go out and see how you can improve businesses, how you can start a business that is unlike anybody else's."
In the spring, students will expand their networks even farther when they are sent abroad for business meetings. Students will have the opportunity to travel to Israel, Brazil or Vietnam but they will have to thoroughly explain why they wish to go to their desired country.
"We won't take someone to a place they've already been." Rachor said, "You have to go somewhere that puts you out of your comfort zone."
The purpose of the trip abroad is to create adaptive businessmen and women. Students are expected to be able to navigate in a business world with a different tax system, different employment laws and a different payroll system.
At the end of the school year, all E-scholar students will be required to partake in the $100k challenge. Students will give an "elevator pitch" or a two-minute synopsis of their business plan to a room full of business professionals who will judge these plans and choose two plans, one for profit and one nonprofit, to receive $100,000 to start that student's business.
"[My favorite part about E-Scholars] is the opportunity it opens up," Ruiz Villatoro said. "They really know how to structure the program, so that when they leave students have a huge network. It's a great program."
Junior Fatima Ruiz Villatoro stands in Times Square during her fall break trip to New York with the E-Scholars program. (Photo courtesy of Fatima Ruiz Villatoro)
