Entrepreneurial students, faculty, staff compete for $25,500 in first Carolina Challenge

Sixteen teams of entrepreneurial students, faculty and staff from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will compete Saturday (April 16) for $25,500 in prize money in the first Carolina Challenge entrepreneurial business plan competition.

These teams emerged as semifinalists from more than 50 that began competing in December. They propose ventures as diverse as an on-campus grocery delivery service, a nonprofit combating illiteracy and a patented nosebleed prevention device. (A full list of semifinalists is at http://www.unc.edu/cei.)

The public is invited to attend this student-led program of the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative (CEI), a campuswide effort designed to help UNC students, faculty and staff learn to create successful new ventures of all kinds.

The event begins with semifinal rounds at 8 a.m. in classrooms at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School’s McColl Building. Finals begin at 12:15 p.m. in the Maurice J. Koury Auditorium. The finals end with an audience vote to identify the Carolina Challenge’s "people’s choice" award, a $1,500 cash prize.

The Carolina Challenge teams include at least one UNC student, faculty or staff member. They compete in two categories: one for business ventures and one for "social ventures," those created to benefit society. Teams will present their plans to a panel of judges made up of successful entrepreneurs and business people, as well as community and university leaders.

Judges will award the following in the two categories: grand prize ($7,000), second place ($3,000) and honorable mention ($1,000, with two awards in each category). The top prize in the business category is the Stedman Award, named to honor the late John Stedman, banker and entrepreneur.

"This is the type of experience students long for – applying what they learn in the classroom to the real world," said Bart Welch, a UNC junior business major who is co-chairman of the competition’s planning team. "The CEI has allowed these teams to get the knowledge and skills they need to make their ideas become reality."

The Carolina Challenge is one of 10 programs offered by the CEI during the 2004-2005 academic year. The CEI seeks to help UNC students, faculty and staff learn to transform their ideas into sustainable enterprises that create value – social, artistic, environmental and business.

The $11 million program is funded in part by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, managed by the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and led by faculty and staff from an array of disciplines. Successful entrepreneurs, many of them UNC alumni, serve as advisers, lending their real-world expertise.

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Expert advice for budding entrepreneurs

By Fiona Robinson

Move over Donald Trump’s apprentices, a group of enterprising Ashburton students are hot on your heels.

Students Shelley Smith, Daniel Pearce, David Lester and Nicole Carlson are developing their business skills by taking part in the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES).

As part of the scheme, students have to form a company, run a business, design, market and sell a product, and create a business plan.

The Ashburton College team proved its determination to win this week when it drafted in Enterprise Ashburton manager Tim Fitzgerald as a mentor.

“They are an innovative bunch of young people with huge potential. They are very open to learning and are a joy to work with,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

The YES business programme was developed by Enterprise New Zealand Trust and is supported in Canterbury by Canterbury Development Corporation.

The aim is to encourage senior secondary students in Years 11 to 13 develop strengths, work together as a team and possibly make money at the same time.

Around 40 teams are involved in the national competition.

• The Ashburton College team will be providing fortnightly updates on their progress for Guardian readers on the business page of the Saturday edition, starting on April 30.
April 13

http://www.ashburtonguardian.co.nz/index.asp?articleid=4835