RU Innovative Challenge gives innovative freshman a unique opportunity for collaboration and ideation
Creating a new venture and solving a global issue may seem like a daunting task for some but fourteen teams of Rowan entrepreneurship freshman did so with ease, ideating real businesses in just a few hours. The Rowan Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RCIE) hosted the RU Innovative Challenge on Dec. 8, as a way to provide freshmen with a hands-on opportunity to put their entrepreneurial skills to the test. Students were put into teams and were tasked to find ways to achieve the second United Nations Sustainable Goal, which is to end hunger.
Teams were all given the same prompt– but each individual group found a unique, creative solution that allowed for food and resources to be conserved or donated to those in need. Aquaponics, food trucks, high calorie nutritious granola bars, even an app that took video game points were all inventions that students came up with in a limited amount of time.
“We randomized the students, so they had no idea who they were going to be working with…they were able to meet each other, figure out who each other were, came up with a fantastic idea and ran with it,” said Andrew Bunoza, Program and Events Coordinator for the RCIE.
The winning team was an idea for SeedShip, a nonprofit seed delivery subscription box, made from sustainable materials. The company is a nonprofit, meaning that the proceeds would go to charities or organizations that are looking to make an environmental impact.
“The box basically comes with three different seeds inside, so we ship it all around the world and they we have an app with how to plant the seeds…our revenue comes from companies, which are going to be on the outside of our box as sponsors, so all of our money just comes from these companies sponsoring us and we take that profit and take a percent out of it and donate it to different organizations and other nonprofits,” said Jake Booth.
Going into the challenge, the teams were completely random with students from all different backgrounds and interests. They had one common interest however– entrepreneurship. Their presentation was so good that Kylie Isaac, one of the team members, won Best Presenter out of all individual students. The team’s ability to adapt and collaborate is what she attributes a lot of the success to.
“I think just adapting to new situations, like when we walked in today we knew we only had a couple hours and we all just met so it was very exciting,” said Isaac.
Isaac also made note of the fact that all students in her group were passionate and worked very well together, despite the fact that this was their first time collaborating on a project of this scale.
“I was a little nervous that I was going to be with people who either didn’t care or just people that didn’t work well with, but I think, at least speaking for myself, I had a good experience with everybody in the group,” said Isaac.
All students were coached during the ideation process by Nick Nastasi, graduate student and founder of 4U Medical Designs, a medical sticker business that has won several pitch competitions at Rowan and around the globe. Students were able to work with him on their pitch and ask him questions whether it was about the presentation, logistics or financial decisions.
“It was great working with all the teams because each team honestly had so much energy and they really, really worked hard on creating unique, innovative solutions. None of them seemed like they were just doing it for the grade,” said Nastasi.
After hours of preparation, the student ideas were judged by members of Rowan’s CEO Club. Each judge had 10 “Rowan Dollars” that they could “invest” in teams that they thought delivered the most promising new ideas. The winner was decided by which teams received the most money for their venture, after pitching their ideas to all of the judges.
“I know Rowan is in good hands with these kids because being freshmen and seeing some of the projects that they did, it’s mind blowing to know they only had four hours to do these and created an entire presentation with pitches,” said Frank Kopa, a junior communications major, who was one of the judges.
Visit ent.rowan.edu to learn more about Entrepreneurship at Rowan.
Story by: Madison Miller
