Zoellick Fellowship Finalist Presentations

Oct. 22, 2013            

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— On Monday, October 28, the Action Research Center (ARC) will host the finalist presentations for the Zoellick Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship.

The event will take place at 7 p.m. in the Case Study Room of State Farm Hall (1402 Park St., Bloomington).

One finalist will be chosen to receive $1500 to start a business. With the help of ARC and the Business Administration Department, the selected students will launch their business by the end of the academic school year.

The finalists and their associated business names are: Josh Wiggs (‘15), Vanessa Macias (‘14) and Jared Casey (‘15) with “ConvenIT,” Erin Sweeney (‘14) and the American Marketing Association with “Bloom,” David Myers (‘15), Camden Weber (‘16) and Ross Knezovich (‘16) with “Titan Green Clean” and Bobby Castillo (‘14) and Miya Thalmann (‘14) with “West Bloomington Bike Share.”

Each finalist will plan a 7-10 minute presentation that they will “pitch” to the ARC Tank (similar to the show “Shark Tank”) judges. The presentation will explain their business idea, the community need they will address, how the business is sustainable and a demonstration of their product/service.

The panelist of judges will include alumnus Todd Zoellick (‘00), founder and president of TransitPro Logistics and Zoellick Enterprises, LLC, Julie Dobski, owner of Little Jewels Learning Center, Rene Shaffer, of Mortgage Services III, LLC and Professor David Marvin, IWU business administration department head.

Earlier this year, Zoellick donated funds to allow the ARC to offer the fellowship to IWU students. The objective of the fellowship is to have students devise a business plan that addressed a local, national or global community need or social problem. Students applied for the fellowship at the end of September, and on October 9, the finalists for the fellowship were announced.

For any additional information about the Zoellick Fellowship, contact ARC Coordinator Cameron Blossom at cblossom@iwu.edu.

Contact: Danielle Kamp ‘15 (309) 556-3181, univcomm@iwu.edu