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

November 5 officially named Regis Day in Colorado

(Photo: Regis University)

By: Natalia Zreliak, Digital Editor

In celebration of both Regis University and Regis Jesuit High School’s 140th anniversary, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper proclaimed November 5, Regis Day in Colorado. Hickenlooper’s proclamation is a long list of the reason why both Regis University and Regis Jesuit are worth celebrating from being the only Jesuit university in the Western Rocky Mountains and the largest private and Catholic high school in Colorado to Jesuit values that make the schools so special.

Both schools were founded in 1887 on November 5 by two Jesuit Priests in Las Vegas, New Mexico but were very shortly relocated to Denver not too long after. Up until 1989 the high school and university shared space on what is now Regis’ Northwest Denver Campus. Originally Regis was known as the College of the Sacred Heart but was given a new name to honor Saint John Francis Regis, a member of The Society of Jesus during the 17th century who worked with prostitutes and the poor in the mountains of Southern France.

Regis University and Regis Jesuit are known for their service to the community surrounding them through clubs and projects like those put on by Father Woody. Hickenlooper’s proclamation even notes both school’s missions to “educate men and women to make a positive impact in a rapidly-changing global society by emphasizing academic excellence, service, and developing the whole person, as prescribed by the principles of the Society of Jesus.”

Reinventing the F-Word: Guerrilla Girls visit Regis

(Photo: Frances Meng-Frecker)

By: Natalia Zreliak, Digital Editor

“Are there any hungry feminists out there?”

Yesterday two members of the Guerilla Girls, a group of feminist activist artists, began their speech by walking down the aisles of the Claver Recital Hall and tossing bananas to the crowd. The hall was filled with students, faculty, and community members while music from Queen Latifah and Christina Aguilera played. The event was hosted by Regis’ Fine Arts Department and Dr. Barbara Coleman, a professor of Art at Regis, welcomed the crowd and introduced the work of the Guerilla Girls by showing their first ever poster.

The Guerilla Girl's most famous work (Photo courtesy of Guerrilla Girls)

“What that simple poster said opened so many of our eyes to the institutionalized racism and sexism in the Regis’ Fine Arts Department, a group of feminist activist artists, began their speech by walking down the aisles of the Claver Recital Hall and tossing bananas to the crowd. The hall was filled with students, faculty, and community members while music from Queen Latifah and Christina Aguilera played. The event was hosted by Guerrilla GirlsYesterday two members of the so-called “liberated” world of the arts, that simple turn of phrase turned that world on its head,” said Coleman.

After a short introduction video, the Guerrilla Girls took to the stage and talked about their motivations and the work they have done over the years. The Guerrilla Girls started tackling injustice in the Art world in 1985 by calling out major galleries. “We stand for the conscious of the art world,” said Kathe Kollwitz, one of the Guerrilla Girls who has taken the name of the dead artist to keep her memory alive as the rest of the Guerrilla Girls do. They’ve had over 55 members through the years, some for weeks and others for years. They wear gorilla masks to keep their identities anonymous, grab the public’s attention, and keep the focus on the issues. Facts and humor are the main ways in which they spread their messages claiming that if you can make someone who disagrees with you laugh then you have more of a chance to change their mind.

What started as a movement in New York City has spread all over the world, the two members having just returned from a protest in Brazil. Their work has also been featured in the very museums that they critique and their work has expanded to call out Hollywood and the injustice that lies there as well.

To learn more about the Guerilla Girls visit their website, www.guerrillagirls.com, and get involved.

OAP hosts "Hammock-In" movie event

(Photos: Emily Schneider) 

By: Natalia Zreliak, Digital Editor

               Yesterday, Regis’ Outdoor Activity Program, OAP, hosted a “Hammock-In” Movie on the beach. Before the movie students were able to play corn-hole, swing in hammocks, and of course there was plenty of pizza to go around.

               The movie of the night was “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” starring Ben Stiller. Based off of the short story by James Thurber, the film follows the life of Ben Stiller a day-dreamer who uses his fantasy world to escape the dreary humdrum of everyday life until one day he’s forced to embark on a real-world adventure across the world that is far more exciting than anything he could have ever imagined.

               The event was held in conjunction with the Outdoor Nation Competition, a challenge between colleges and universities across the United States. “This week is hammock week so we decided to make it accessible and easy for everyone to get involved and be here,” said Ryan Harris, a junior at Regis and a member of OAP.

Just how much do our devices hear?

(Photo: Emily Zanott)

By: Natalia Zreliak, Digital Editor
 

“Hey Siri, are you always listening?”

               Voice technology has made our lives easier, no longer do you need to type your silly questions instead you can just ask Siri, Alexa, Cortana, or Google out loud. Virtual assistants are extremely popular right now but just how much are they hearing and what happens to the audio files they gather?

               The Amazon Echo keeps an audio recording of all voice commands that have been given to Alexa, the digital assistant. Amazon also reports that there is a small second of audio before the wake-up call is issued to the Amazon Echo. You can, however, check and delete your Amazon Echo recordings but you might be shocked just how much was heard.

               Google just recently launched a new My Account section that gives users the ability to delete recordings or tell the assistant to stop recording users voices altogether. This seems to be a step in the right direction but time will tell. For now, it is important for users to be aware of their digital assistants and any apps that may have access to your microphone.

"The S Word" makes its Denver premiere at Regis

             Regis University hosted the Denver premiere of "The S Word," a documentary addressing the stigma of suicide through interviews with suicide attempt survivors, on its Northwestern Denver Campus on Sept. 25. The screening was followed by a Q&A with a panel moderated by Sally Spencer-Thomas, a psychologist, and suicide prevention expert. The panel consisted of the film's director Lisa Klein,  Nahed Barakat, Psy.D., Lena Heilmann Ph.D., and Stacey Freedenthal Ph.D. Barakat is a licensed Clinical Psychologist at Regis, Heilmann is a former professor and Suicide Prevention Advocate, and Freedenthal is psychotherapist in Denver and a graduate professor at the University of Denver.

             “It’s not the word suicide that is the problem, it is the deafening silence around it,” Spencer-Thomas opened the event, quoting April Foreman, a Suicide Prevention Coordinator for veterans in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

             "The S Word" seeks to tell the stories of suicide attempt survivors inspired by the work of Dese’rae Stage, the founder of LiveThroughThis.org, a website where Stage interviews attempt survivors in hopes to show that suicide affects everyone of all races, genders, and backgrounds.  Stage, a survivor of a suicide attempt herself, wanted to explore the “other side of suicide” in part to help find answers to some questions she had from her past.

             “I started this film from a place of loss and was surprised to find such a thriving community,” remarks Klein on her experience filming "The S Word."

             The audience is invited into the lives and homes of suicide attempt survivors and their family members, we’re witness to weddings, speeches, and the scattering of ashes. The interviewees share their darkest moments with the audience and it's nearly impossible not to grow attached to them. These are the type of people you’d pass on the street without a second glance. They’re funny, they’re raw, they’re real, they’re human, and by the end of the film, it’s hard to imagine a world without them in it.

             While many of the survivors are in a much better place than they were at the time of their attempt, that doesn’t mean that suicidal thoughts don’t still plague them at times. It’s an ongoing journey with bumps along the way. When one of the interviewees, Kelechi Ubozoh, was asked if suicide was still an option for her she said she didn’t want it to be but at times those thoughts do return to her.

             The ultimate takeaway is that suicide doesn’t discriminate. "The S Word" intermittently reminds its audience through its statistics: every 112 people are lost to suicide every day, 40% of trans people commit suicide every year, 20 veterans commit suicide a day, and suicide is one of the highest leading causes of death for Americans aged 15-24.

             Colorado consistently ranks in the top ten states with the highest suicide rates, so what as a community can be done about this? Now more than ever it’s important to get involved be it through joining groups like the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado or just being willing to listen and be there for someone battling with suicidal thoughts. Don’t let this call to action be ignored, as Spencer-Thomas asked those in attendance, “Where’s your voice in this effort? Where’s your stand in this battle?”

             If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. For additional resources, you can visit TheSWordMovie.com or SuicidePreventionColorado.org.

Natalia Zreliak
Digital Editor