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CSUF Entrepreneurship School Year in Review: 2013-14


Another wonderful school year has come to a close and we couldn’t be prouder. This year we have accomplished many things and our students have exceeded all expectations. Recently, we hosted an Awards Celebration and I would like to take the time to give you an overview of everyone who was recognized.

Since 2011, Michael Sawitz and his incubator, FastStart.studio, has supported CSUF student-entrepreneurs by providing full tuition to multiple student startups each year. This year, Michael (pictured right), awarded two such scholarships, one to Andre Conde’s (pictured center) White Light Medical and Quinn Royston’s Cordomi Rentals.

Michael Sawitz graciously supported two scholarships that will pay for all the tuition costs to his business incubator, FastStart.studio. Each of these scholarships is valued at $25,000 and each of the winners, incidentally, were top three finishers in this year’s CSUF Business Plan Competition.

Andre Conde’s White Light Medical was one of the recipients for this prize. White Light Medical has developed a device that will aid in spinal surgery by cutting down on the risks and time needed for this type of surgery.

Quinn Royston’s Cordomi Rentals was another winner of this award. Cordomi Rentals is designed to take the guess work out of rental property searches for pet owners by giving them all the information up front about what kinds of pets property owners would allow.

For more info on the 2014 CSUF Business Plan Competition Click Here

Jerry Conrey supported his Conrey Insurance Brokers & Risk Managers Entrepreneurial Scholarship for $3,000 again this year. This year, the scholarship went to the deserving Sam Cisneros. Sam is very active across campus and that is especially so in the realm of Entrepreneurship. Sam was the Vice President of the Entrepreneur Society, participated in the Business Plan and Fast Pitch Competitions, helped with every event the Center was involved in and so much more.

For many years, Jerry Conrey (left) has supported the Conrey Insurance Brokers & Risk Managers Entrepreneurial Scholarship. This year, the scholarship went to Sam Cisneros (right).

We also had the ability to honor our top Student-led Business Consulting Groups from the previous year as well. This year, we were fortunate enough to have our Undergraduate team take the National SBI Project of the Year title and our MBA team took home second place nationally in their division. If you don’t know, our Student-led Business Consulting Program is the best in the nation at what we do. Each semester, our teams, of which there are over 50, is assigned a company as a client and they will spend the entire semester working on a project for that client.

These projects are for real money, as the clients do pay, and the recommendations that our student-led teams produce are usually followed by our clients. One of the greatest things about these projects is that it enables our students to get real world experience and to learn how to work on a very difficult team project. Above everything else, this is the program that prepares our students the most for the real world.

This is the CSUF Student-led Consulting Group that won the Small Business Institute’s National Project of the Year Competition in the Undergraduate Division. Good job team!

All of these great things could not have been possible without the efforts of everyone involved with the program. There are, of course, all of the mentors that selflessly give their time to our student-entrepreneurs to help them with their team projects. The professors are top notch and give our students an experience and an education that may be imitated but never matched.

The Center staff supports every facet of the program; unfortunately, we have to say goodbye to Adrienne Bailey who was responsible for managing all of the great events we have had the last two years. We wish her all the best. Director Jackson has done a lot this year teaching multiple classes and performing his duties as Center Director.

Most of all, none of this would happen if it weren’t for the students. It’s amazing how much work they have to do in each class. Every one of the consulting projects our teams do require at least 300 total hours of work for every team; it becomes even more impressive once you realize that each CSUF student majoring in Entrepreneurship has to complete four(!) consulting projects. And then, of course, each student participates in a team that is tasked with launching an actual business. This alone is a two semester-long project that is an unmatched experience at this university.

The 2013-14 was great but we are already preparing for the 2014-15 school year! Want to join us? (If you really want to join our awesome organization in some capacity please send us an email to csufentrepreneurship@fullerton.edu and we will see if there’s a fit.)


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