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April 2007

Hobbs Announces $1 Million Endowment

Russ Hobbs (Philosophy - '88) Announces $1 Million Endowment and creates Russell D. and Elfriede Hobbs Fund for Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts

Russ Hobbs, Wake Forest graduate 1988, announced Friday, April 13, a $1 million endowment gift to create the Russell D. and Elfriede Hobbs Fund for Entrepreneurship and the Liberal Arts. The gift will provide seed grants, internships and similar funds for undergraduate students who want to launch socially beneficial organizations, including charitable, educational, scientific, and artistic enterprises. It will also fund a major prize for the most entrepreneurial venture at Wake Forest each year.

Hobbs, a Tampa, FL resident and the founder of Blue Ocean Software, chose to surprise his parents at the April 13 dedication by establishing the fund in their name. Other members of the Hobbs family and Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch joined them for the ceremony.

This contribution is the first major endowment gift for the Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts. For the total amount to be received, the challenge grant must be matched by other new endowment gifts for the office's programs.

Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award 2007

Students and Faculty recognized for the their entrepreneurial achievements at the Seocond Annual Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards Banquet

The second annual Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards Banquet was held on Thursday, April 12, 2007, in the Magnolia Room of Reynolda Hall. The Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards were presented to six undergraduate student ventures and six faculty members representing a variety of departments throughout the University.

The Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award acknowledges individuals who have demonstrated entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, achievement, and social responsibility and who will serve as inspirations to students, faculty, and staff.

Student Awards

The first Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award for E-commerce was presented to Will Rawley (business) and Drew Crofton (political science) for their Internet-based venture, College Garage. Armed with only $500 and a lot of help from a fellow sympathizing student entrepreneur, these two undergrads worked through the summer to develop their business model and launch their service. They have since conducted a major marketing campaign and have launched a beta site which offers Wake Forest students a convenient social and commercial marketplace – CollegeGarage.com.

The second E-commerce Award was given to biology major John Michael Baratta for his development and work with MEDMarketplace.com. Three years ago, Baratta and his cousin began to develop the concept for a website that would allow people to recycle or sell used medical equipment including items such as crutches, walkers, and motorized scooters. People with items to sell can list them on the website, and those in need of medical equipment can visit the site to purchase used items. The need was clear and after only two years, the site has more than 6,000 regular participants and is still growing rapidly.

This year’s award for the category of Artistic Venture was presented to economics major Andy Albert for his musical venture, Holiday Parade. Over the past year, Albert and two other artists combined their skills and love for music to form a band. In less than a year and a half, Holiday Parade has produced two albums and attracted a fan base that will soon launch them into an LA board room and hopefully an offer from a trendy record label. Albert, the band’s lead vocalist, has written tunes and lyrics that have generated a loyal fan following and over 30,000 MySpace members.

For the category of Commercial and Retail Venture, Martha Napier (studio art) was recognized for turning her artistic talent and passion into a successful business operation. Interested in design and the apparel industry, this senior studio art major took inspiration from a class project while attending a summer program at the Parsons School of Design in NY. While at Parsons, she was named the “top designer” of her program. Based on her original designs, she launched a line of knit tops which give her consumers the opportunity to customize their apparel from a number of different options including color, design, and trim. Justees: for Justice, Napier’s venture, promotes “corporate social responsibility” by donating a portion of its profits to non-profit organizations and initiatives that support women’s causes.

Two awards were presented this year for the category of Social Enterprise. The first recipient of this year’s award, biology major Jonathan Barry, was inspired and first recognized the need for his venture through a service-learning course, English 111: Writing Well that he enrolled in during his freshman year at Wake Forest. Teaching writing and mentoring children who had been labeled “at risk of failing” at Northwest Middle School, Barry was shocked by the lack of motivation from these children. None the less, he was able to open up one young adolescent boy who no one else could reach. The experience from that semester launched the H.O.P.E. Project, one of Wake Forest’s most successful and largest service organizations. Today, more than 170 students volunteer with the organization, and the reach of its program has expanded to other schools in the Winston-Salem area.

The second honoree for the category of Social Enterprise was a student who has made a significant impact on the global community. Inspired from a family trip to Kenya at the age of 12, French major Hillary Francis was troubled by the difficult schooling conditions that she saw in a Maasai tribal village where students wrote with their fingers in the sand because there was no chalk or chalkboard. She was told by her tour guide, “They’re not going anywhere, they’re not doing anything with their lives, so just forget about them.” But like all great entrepreneurs, she persevered and believed that she could do more than just forget about them: she could create value, she could make a difference. At the age of 16, Francis founded Backpacks Abroad to help provide school supplies and financial support for impoverished children around the world. Within the past several months, her organization has sent shipments of supplies and financial support to Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Belize, and is planning shipments within the next month to Zambia and Brazil.

Faculty Awards

Mathematics professor Dr. Ken Berenhaut was recognized with the Faculty Venture of the Year award. Applying the teacher-scholar model into an entrepreneurial venture, Dr. Berenhaut received a small seed grant from the Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts to kick start the development of Involve, a self-sustaining scientific journal devoted to showcasing and encouraging the highest quality mathematical research involving students. Berenhaut was recognized for his significant accomplishments with Involve, for his application of entrepreneurial principles to support research and publication, and for his significant contribution to the ongoing education of students both in mathematics and entrepreneurship.

Two awards were presented in the category of Course Development. The first award for course development went to Dr. Jed Macosko in the Physics Department for his development of a First-Year Seminar called Harnessing Life’s Molecular Machines: From AIDS Tests to Hydrogen Cars. In this course, students explored the tiny machines that are found within living cells, learned how the machines perform, and drafted proposals that leveraged ideas from professors, scientists, local entrepreneurs and their own ideas to develop products and services that create value. Special attention was paid to developing appropriate technologies – for example inexpensive AIDS tests for developing nations. The class has received high marks from students, and thanks to Dr. Macosko’s support and advice, several students have already generated entrepreneurial interests, including a proposal for a series of products based on molecular machines.

The second award for Course Development went to Dr. Terry Baker of the Wayne Calloway School of Business & Accountancy, who developed a course for Fifth Year Accounting students called Accounting and Financial Management for Entrepreneurs. This course included experiential learning projects to assist entrepreneurs with financial analysis and to develop spreadsheet tools to make financial projections. By matching students with entrepreneurs, students were able to experience the thrills and the challenges of working with an entrepreneurial venture and learn through a hands-on, interactive project.

This year’s award for Local Community Involvement and Outreach was given to a faculty member in the Humanities Department for her multi-year work with the Guilford Native American Association, a non-profit in Greensboro, N.C. Award recipient Dr. Ulrike Wiethaus has designed and taught two courses, and will also teach a new course next year titled Interdisciplinary Seminar in Cultural Diversity and Social Entrepreneurship. She organized and implemented the American Indian Winter Festival and Market on the Wake Forest campus in December of 2005 and the Celebrating Women of Proud Nations Conference, which had a Native American women’s entrepreneurship panel, this past January. This year’s award for International Community Involvement and Outreach was granted to Dr. Jean Simonelli of the Anthropology Department for her outstanding work and dedication to making an impact on a global level. Dr. Simonelli was recognized for her incredible accomplishments in developing an organization with the Chiapas Indians in southern Mexico to improve economic development and health related issues for the area. The objective of her most recent venture was to have a health professional exchange with a visiting expert team, training those who will provide direct care and those who will train the future health practitioners for the area – a “train the trainer” program focused on infant and maternal health, an initiative which will provide a recurring legacy for the project.

This year’s award for Mentoring goes to John Abraham, an adjunct instructor who has shown generous support to the Wake Forest entrepreneurship program. This semester, Abraham volunteered his time to teach a 1.5 credit hour course in Venture Capital. As a venture capitalist at Kodiak Venture Partners, he has also mentored numerous student entrepreneurs, giving them advice on financing, business planning, and operations. Abraham has also personally helped over a dozen students find summer internships in entrepreneurial organizations and start-ups.

The Entrepreneurship Society and the Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts would like to congratulate the award winners and thank all involved for their participation in continuing the tradition of recognizing Excellence in Entrepreneurship at Wake Forest.

WXII 12 airs story on Aqualutions

WXII News Reporter Michelle Kennedy recently aired a story on Aqualutions
Click here to see the story.