Second Annual Innovation Center Challenge

Bailey Gent, Student Director of Innovation Center, and Paul Hunter, CEO of Repurpose and winner of last year’s challenge //Frances Meng-Frecker

By: Natalia Zreliak, Co-Editor-In-Chief

Yesterday the Anderson College of Business held its launch party for the 2018 Innovation Challenge. The event was in the Innovation Center on the third floor of Clarke Hall from 5:00pm-7:00p,  allowing community members to come and learn more about the challenge and celebrate the launch. In attendance were also some of the returning mentors from last year’s challenge, ranging from professors to alumni along with a member of last year’s winning team, Paul Hunter from Repurpose, to offer advice to those interested in these year’s challenge.

The Innovation Center was created in 2016 with the mission to “innovate business education by bringing together students, faculty, alumni, and the community to design solutions for the curriculum and the world” according to their website. The Innovation center really wants to stress that anyone can participate in the challenge, you do not have to have a business background. The top three teams will receive $10,000, $5,000, and $1,000 along with a co-working space in the Innovation Center and the ability to utilize the Alumni Matrix. This year they will also be offering a prize to anyone who has a brand new idea but is in the beginning stages of developing it.

Each team must have at least one student but the Innovation Challenge is open to all students, faculty and staff. The challenge itself is to build an innovative business that is desirable, feasible, and viable. Questions that will be asked of the ideas include: Does the world need it? Can it be done with the tools the groups have and are asking for? Lastly, will people actually pay for it? The teams will be judged on these three criteria along with their presentation.

“This is a business competition, we use the pitches as a metric to evaluate but the reality is this is about you starting and running a business that becomes a part of the community. This is where the stewardship mission comes into play” said Ken Sagendorf, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Business and Economics at Regis. Eighty percent of the judging is done by the panel of judges selected from areas all across the business sector and 20% of the judging is done by those in attendance of the final pitches.

“I am excited about the innovation challenge to see the process for the different teams and the ways that they develop over the year of mentoring, learning, and growing. I’m really just excited for them to take something and build on their education in a way that will be really feasible and tangible going forward after graduation,” said Bailey Gent, a Senior at Regis and this years Student Co-Director for the Innovation Challenge.

Important dates coming up:

Monday, November 12: Open House in the Innovation Incubator from 5:00-7:00 pm
Monday, November 26: Open House in the Innovation Incubator from 5:00-7:00 pm
Monday, December 10 through Wednesday, December 12: Semi-Final Pitches, 15 minute slots between 6:00-8:00pm.

To learn more about the Innovation challenge you can contact them on their website and join their mailing list or follow them on Twitter and Instagram @RegisInnovation or on Facebook as RegisInnovation. Or email them at innovation@regis.edu or contact the co-directors Bailey Gent at bgent@regis.edu and Zach Pearson at zpearson@regis.edu.

TAGS: Regis, Regis University, Anderson College of Business, Innovation Center, Innovation Challenge, 2018 Innovation Challenge, Alumni Matrix, Ken Sagendorf, College of Business and Economics, Bailey Gent, Jesuit, Business, Natalia Zreliak

Fair Trade & Food Justice Panel

(Photo: IMDB)

                 On Monday, Feb. 27, Regis students Bailey Gent, Allison Foust, Elsa Meyners, and David Mooney coordinated and hosted an event to bring light to an issue we hear on a daily basis, fair trade.

                 Gent, Foust, Meyners, and Mooney showed the documentary: Mama Rwanda, about Rwandan women rebuilding the country after genocide through entrepreneurship. Additionally, four panelists attend the event to help discuss fair trade and their work with fair trade.

                 The panelists included  Michelle Korth, who works with Restore Innocence, an organization that helps victims of human trafficking. Another was Shanna Heddle, who lived abroad in Myanmar and currently owns a secondhand store that donates 20 percent of their profits to help victims of human trafficking. Additionally Katie Hile was in attendance. She founded Totonga Bomoi, an organization that helps women in the Congo create products for income. Sarah Ray, who works with Yobel International, an organization that promotes the purchasing of free trade and recycled products completed the panel. These panelists are all women, who work to promote fair trade and empower other women through their work.

                 The panelists shared their experiences of becoming active in the world of free trade with the students in attendance. Each woman was able to share a different story or experience that spurred them to action, emphasizing the idea that relationships lead to social change and make their work worthwhile.

                 “What keeps me going is watching these girls go from this place of utter brokenness…to doing so well,” said Korth.

                 Panelists also offered suggestions to students who are interested in getting into the world of free trade, and promoting free trade as part of their lifestyle. One recommendation was finding one thing that is important to you and making sure that product is obtained through free trade means only. Additionally, they recommended downloading the Better World Shopping Guide which provides an index of how companies perform regarding fair trade, they also stressed the need not to put too much pressure on yourself.

                 “When you start out it can feel like everything you do is causing evil in the world, so focus on the things that grip your heart. Try to be balanced as you approach the adjustment in your life," said Weddle.

                 Regis students will get an opportunity to promote recycling and sustainable living in April when the same four students conduct a clothing swap on campus, keep an eye out for that event as the semester progresses.

Catie Cheshire Staff Reporter