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CSUF Entrepreneurship Students Awarded More Than $100,000 in Scholarships and In-kind Awards during the 2018-19 Academic Year

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Thanks to the generosity of the CSUF Entrepreneurship community, student-entrepreneurs received more than $100,000 in cash scholarships, in-kind sponsorships, and residencies at the CSUF Startup Incubator! Wow, that is amazing!

To celebrate these students and the gracious donors, here is a list of all of the awards from the 2018-19 academic year:

Conrey Insurance Brokers and Risk Managers Entrepreneurial Scholarship

$3,500 scholarship awarded to Kylie Toney

Scholarship was sponsored by Jerry and Victoria Conrey

This scholarship was established by Conrey Insurance Brokers and Risk Managers on behalf of the Entrepreneurship Program in the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics, Cal State Fullerton.

Titan Women Collective Scholarship

Six $250 scholarships awarded to Alexis Akpodiete, Jilene Melendez, Thuanh Nguyen, Kelly Mendoza, Emily Dorsit, and Brigitte Pfifer.

Scholarship was sponsored by Dr. Deborah Ferber, who is also a professor in the CSUF Entrepreneurship program, in memory of Lawrence Wolfgang Ferber.

Speaking on the subject of female entrepreneurs, Dr. Gerard Beenen, the Management Department Chair at Cal State Fullerton, had this to say “Although the proportion of women-owned businesses increased from about 30% to 40% over the last decade, there’s still a lot more progress that needs to be made — especially in California. For instance, the proportion of revenue from women-owned businesses only increased from about 4% to about 4.3% over that period. And despite the size of California’s economy, we lag behind other states and fail to make the top 5 in growth in the revenue, employment and number of women-owned businesses. We want our thriving entrepreneurship program at Cal State Fullerton to become the go-to resource for women entrepreneurs as we strive to make Southern California a leader in the development of women-owned businesses.”

The Patel Family Scholarship

$500 scholarship awarded to Brian Brady

Scholarship was sponsored by Ashok Patel and his family.

Digsy Entrepreneurial Scholarship

$500 awarded to Evelyn Aguirre

Scholarship was established by Andrew Bemudez, the CEO and Co-founder of Digsy, on behalf of the Entrepreneurship Program in the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics, Cal State Fullerton.

Center for Entrepreneurship Fellowship

$2,000 awarded to Anna Conners

This scholarship was established to provide financial support for a student who has gone above and beyond in their support and participation with the Center for Entrepreneurship.

Titan Fast Pitch Scholarships

Titan Fast Pitch – University

  1. $1,500 went to Nicholas DeOrian from Cal State Fullerton
  2. $1,000 went to Tristan Starkweather from Cal State Fullerton
  3. $500 went to Zarina Bahadur from UC Irvine
  4. $250 went to Estela Perfetti from Cal State Fullerton

Titan Fast Pitch – High School

  1. $400 to Gabriela Guevara and Neslie Orozco, Los Altos High School
  2. $300 to Phiphi Dinh and Teresa Xiao, Lincoln High School
  3. $200 to Jose Alvarez and Jocelyn Cuera, Western High School
  4. $100 to Ashley Shire, Western High School

Titan Fast Pitch – Middle School

  1. $400 to Hannah Urbina, Andrea Mijangos and Victoria Galvez, Florence Nightingale Middle School
  2. $300 to Mariela Cruz, Florence Nightingale Middle School
  3. $200 to Zhi Jing Liu, Florence Nightingale Middle School
  4. $100 to Matthew Mosqueda, Florence Nightingale Middle School

CSUF Startup Competition

  1. $1,000 to Bryan Ruef of 10-8 Systems
  2. $500 to Kylie Tonie of Captshield
  3. $350 to Russell Gilchrist, Michael Ruiz, and Josh Sloane of Tomorrow’s Tone
  4. $100 to Leonard Gomez of Runball
  5. $100 to Brandon Hawkinson, Kai Iseda, Gaury Verma, Chris Nguyen, and Dat Nguyen of Ayli
  6. $100 to Raul Chavez, Kasie Chen, Josue Flores, and Brian Brady of Safe Space

All of the finalists in the CSUF Startup Competition also received a residency at the CSUF Startup Incubator (each residency is worth $5,000) and more than $1,000 more in in-kind services from experts in the CSUF Entrepreneurship community.

In total, there was more than $40,000 in cash and in-kind awards won by the finalists of the CSUF Startup Competition.

CSUF Startup Incubator – Sponsored Residencies

Thanks to the support of amazing donors like Dan Black, Karl Freels, David Morris of Royal Business Bank, and others, a select few students and alumni have received a sponsored six month residency at the CSUF Startup Incubator. While at the CSUF Startup Incubator these entrepreneurs have worked hand in hand with staff and our great group of startup coaches to learn how to be better entrepreneurs and how to take their startups from concept to launch.

A team of women student-entrepreneurs was sponsored to develop a startup with the mission of revolutionizing the bra industry. This startup was funded by Dan Black and his wife, Kathy Chao. At the CSUF Startup Incubator, the team worked on developing a go to market strategy for their business and developed plans for their product launch. For more information about this startup, please go here.

David Chamberlain received a sponsored residency at the CSUF Startup Incubator. David’s startup has a great mission, which is to help families who have kids with disabilities find the right services for their situation. Currently, families do not know what services are right for their situation and David’s startup will solve that.

One of the teams that competed in the CSUF Startup Competition, Tomorrow’s Tone, received a sponsored residency earlier this year at the CSUF Startup Incubator. Their business’ mission is to help kids with special needs develop academic and social skills through the power of their proprietary music therapy program. The team is on the cusp of launching!

Laptop Desks for Everyone!

Jose Calero, the founder of Lap Works, donated more than $50,000 of product from his inventory. If you have been to one of our events you have probably benefited from one of Jose’s inventions!

In Conclusion…

As you can tell, the CSUF Entrepreneurship community is extremely generous and I think a big reason for that generosity is due to the fact that this community understands the importance of developing the next generation of entrepreneurs. A big part of that developmental process is a quality education that blends the academic and the practical into a cohesive unit.

Thank you to all of our donors and congratulations to all of the recipients of scholarships, in-kind services, and residencies during the 2018-19 academic year!

CSUF Entrepreneurship Board

The Center for Entrepreneurship at Cal State Fullerton is a nonprofit organization that is responsible for educating and preparing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders on the West Coast. The CSUF Entrepreneurship Board was founded as a way to financially and strategically support all of the activities that the Center for Entrepreneurship undertakes, including: educating 200+ students every semester; managing the CSUF Startup Incubator where startup founders receive expert coaching on how to go from their concept to launch; student competitions such as the Titan Fast Pitch where students are challenged to take their first steps as entrepreneurs; and weekly events specifically tailored to the needs of entrepreneurs. If you are interested in becoming a CSUF Entrepreneurship board member please contact CSUF Entrepreneurship Director John Bradley Jackson at jjackson@fullerton.edu for more information.


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