Calvin Students Get Business Experience

December 3, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: Calvin College's first bizPlan competition was held recently with
student teams presenting their business ideas to a panel of local judges and
cash prizes on the line.

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/bizplan.html

Presenting a full business plan before a panel of judges was a valuable
exercise in what works and what doesn't in the business world for a trio of
student teams in the final round of the recent bizPlan competition at Calvin
College.

The contest came about when 2001 Calvin graduate Brett Logan partnered with
the Engineering department and Calvin's new Enterprise Center to provide funds
for cash prizes. Logan, founder and owner of an aircraft cleaning company, said
he hoped to provide more opportunities for students to practice
entrepreneurship via the contest.

Steve VanderLeest, chair of the engineering department shares Logan's vision.

"BizPlan2007, the first business plan competition at Calvin," he said, "is
just one of several endeavors that have been recently launched to promote
entrepreneurism. Many Calvin students are interested in how to put their faith
into action through creative innovation, creating jobs and business
leadership."

Logan served as one of the judges and was joined by a group of businessmen
with experience in everything from engineering to real estate law to non-profit
management.

Volturna, a team composed of five members—four electrical engineering majors
and one accounting major—took first place in the competition with their plan
to develop a transmitter that would allow people to send multimedia —YouTube
videos, online TV episodes, Power Point presentations—from their laptops to a
nearby TV screen through a wireless signal.

The engineers are using their idea to both fulfill the requirements for their
engineering senior design project and start a small electronics design company.
The bizPlan competition was just the right place to test their idea with a
knowledgeable business audience team members said.

Besides the experience the bizPlan competition gave to each participant, the
prize money—$1500 for first place—won't hurt either. Volturna team members
plan to invest their prize money to develop their business idea further.

With the success of the first bizPlan competition, contest organizers plan to
hold the second bizPlan competition in the fall of 2008.

VanderLeest hopes that by offering a business plan writing workshop in the
spring of 2008, the next competition will draw students from a variety of
majors, from English majors hoping to start a proofreading business to
recreation majors with a plan to start a personal training service.

-end-
Received on Mon Dec 3 15:05:15 2007