The Reporter

Photo courtesy: gohatters.com Men's basketball wins with a strong 2nd half Sports, page 6 Vol. CXXI Issue 14 ^SS^S >5*S THE EPORTER Stetson University | DeLand, Fla. More than just another Stetson club Stetson's newest org is making waves in the world of student entrepreneurship Eleanor Roy Editor-in-Chief Senior Ashley Holloway decided that her new organization wouldn't be "just another club at Stetson" when it was founded last semester. Holloway is President of the Stetson Entrepreneurial Group, an organization whose goal is to give students hands-on experience and expose them to the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, regardless of their major. "It's not just about making money," Holloway said, adding that this is one of the biggest misconceptions of entrepreneurship. "Creative people are everywhere and I really think the opportunities that this club will give people could really help the Stetson population." Photo courtesy: Ashley Holloway With close to 40 members, the SEG and its supporters have big plans for the impact they want the organization to have on the Stetson community, and they aren't wasting any time to make it happen. EVENTS WITH AN IMPACT The organization is hosting two major events in the coming months aimed at giving students feedback on their pitching skills and startup proposals, both of which Associate Professor Dr. Gary Oliphant says are crucial when becoming an entrepre- "We're now in the entrepreneurial age," Oliphant said, adding that students need to know how to be innovators in order to have a competitive edge in this age of free information. "What they've realized is that if a company doesn't reinvent themselves, they go out of business. .. What an entrepreneur offers is innovation and creativity. It's a skillset, and it's critical today." The SEG First Pitch Competition will be the group's first event of the year. Students have to submit a video of themselves pitching their business plan, a product or a solution in either social or business entrepre neurship by 11:59 p.m. tonight. From there, students will vote on Facebook to choose the top 8 from each category who will move onto the next round, which is a live pitch in front of an audience next weekend. While the winners will get cash prizes, all participants will receive feedback from faculty and professional entrepreneurs on their public speaking and pitching skills. "This is literally just an ideas competition," Holloway said. The SEG's next event will be a startup weekend on March 21-23 where students will have the opportunity to take their business product or idea and actually create a prototype. "We will have experts in all the different fields there for three days from legal, to marketing, to sales, how to set up a patent, all of those kinds of things," Oliphant said. The startup event will be free for the first 100 students and will let them get first-hand experience with the process of starting their own businesses. THE PUSH FOR COLLABORATION AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP The SEG is part of a movement at Stetson to create more interdisciplinary collaboration between the business school and the liberal arts school, and to push for social entrepreneurship projects. Oliphant said one of the most important aspects of entrepreneur- ship is stressing the social responsibilities of the business within its community. "Our program is having a major, major component of social entrepreneurship," Oliphant said. "The purpose is, yes, make a profit. But the idea of a profit is also sustain- ability [and] not letting governments and universities try to solve all our problems. It's the people with greater flexibility (who] solve those problems." He said that the standard way we address social, political and education problems is to use "the Band Aid approach," which only tempo rarily fixes them. Oliphant thinks that one of the ways to fix large- scale problems that overlap multiple areas of society is to start with social responsibility of businesses. He said he thinks groups like Stetson's SEG have the power to actually bring about change to the world's problems. There are also big changes coming for Stetson's Entrepreneurial minor. Thanks to collaborative efforts between the liberal arts school and the business school, it will now be easier for non-business majors to get an Entrepreneurial minor because they won't have to take so many prerequisite classes. "We want people to understand that entrepreneurship is for everybody, and the reason for that is if you're in the arts, if you're in music, you're probably going to start your own business," Oliphant said. "Doesn't it make sense to do these kind of things?" Holloway said that the SEG is the perfect example of this kind of collaboration that the university needs for entrepreneurs. "As far as SEG and its importance to Stetson goes, I think it is a really great way to unify the school and get rid of the 'across the street' mentality that can sometimes happen between the business school and arts and sciences," she said. "Entrepreneurship is truly not just for business majors." LOOKING AHEAD While Holloway will graduate in May, she said she is confident that the SEG will continue to grow and provide its members with opportunities for experience in the entrepreneurial world. One way she thinks the club will do that is through its Enactus program, a social entrepreneurship nonprofit group that works with students in higher education to bring about change in their communities. The group recently traveled to Flagler College to learn about its award-winning Enactus program, which gave them lots of ideas for Stetson's program. "Going up to Flagler college was a great experience," Holloway said. "We met with their Enactus team and learned about all of their ongoing projects. It definitely got our SEG very excited and motivated to start building our own Enactus group within SEG here at Stetson." Both Oliphant and Holloway said that they think Stetson's Enactus program could eventually grow into being its own organization. "What an entrepreneur offers is innovation and creativity. It's a skillset, and it's critical today." —Dr. Gary Oliphant Gary Oliphant's wife, Dr. Becky Oliphant, is also a professor at Stetson and the SEG's faculty adviser. "Entrepreneurship is not just about business. It is about transforming the life of the 'Entrepreneur,' but also about transforming others with their idea, project or service," Becky Oliphant wrote in an email. "It is not just a business focus because with ENACTUS it is serving our local community with sustainable projects that will change lives. This is not a one or two time volunteer project but a way to serve others with ideas and services that will impact the lives of people in our community." Trixi Menge is the SEG's VP for Project Management and was able to attend the trip to see Flagler's Enactus program. "The trip to Flagler was more than inspirational," Menges, a sophomore, said in an email. "It made me want to stop everything I was doing and change the world. The Flagler students were a family of leaders that we're making a difference and I knew right away it was something I wanted to be a part of. I know it won't take long for Stetson's program to get to that level and I'm ecstatic to be apart of its growth and impact." "It will be a lot of hard work, but in the end, we will truly be changing peoples lives for the better, and in turn, growing as individuals," Holloway said What's in this issue Psychology professor gains national attention News, page 3 Q S A with student movie intern, Leah Smith A 8 E, page 4 10 things to do before graduating Stetson Back, page 8