Five Workshops & One Week: 177 Students Explore Business

Fullbridge team winners

The spring 2023 semester started off with 177 students participating in five concurrent virtual business workshops.  The week of January 18-22 was led by 70 alumni presenters and mentors in the following areas:

    • Fullbridge Professional Edge: This simulated workweek provides exposure to the basics of business and an opportunity to collaborate in teams through active learning culminating in a final presentation.
        • Special congratulations to Team Adidas for the innovative growth idea securing them each the top prize of a $300 Apple gift card! Will Croce ’25, Will Sampson ’24, Ignacio Sanchez ’26 and Thomas Foster ’26 let by cCoach Carmen! 
    • Corporate Finance & Banking: With virtual tours at top banks and overviews of corporate finance, corporate banking, and asset management, 20 students spent two days gaining a comprehensive understanding of the industry.   Opportunities to understand the application process and culture of the industry included a recruiter panel and a virtual networking event.
    • The new Entrepreneurship Fundamentals Workshop was led by Bob Allard ’91 and Michael Yatco ’06 where they discussed the entrepreneur’s mindset with 15 students working through business strategy and innovation..
    • Interview Prep: Personal branding and a core value proposition are key to successful interviewing.  60 students further developed their elevator pitch and practiced interview skills with the Center for Career Development followed by successful career tips from notable alumnae.
    • Marketing Communications & Sales: Alumni led 45 students through the practical exploration of advertising, marketing, sales, and public relations.  Teams competed in the PepsiCo Challenge, each tasked with bringing SodaStream to campus for individual use.

Many of the students participated in more than one opportunity as they worked towards Business Certificate Program completion, including the month-long Excel Tutorial offered during the month of January.

Students Win Business Ethics Competition

The International Business Ethics Case Competition, IBECC, was founded by Tom White ’69 over 23 years ago. Students from the College of the Holy Cross have competed since 2011, typically with a first round on campus with the winning team sent to compete internationally. Unfortunately, like so many other events in 2020, IBECC was moved to a virtual format and the Holy Cross teams opted not to move forward.

Two students, Katelyn Cody ’22 and Robin Lu ’22, worked with Prof. Karen Teitel and decided to participate as individuals in the optional Moral Compass Competition. Students were mixed up with students across schools, a good way to know other people.  Katelyn Cody ’22 team (Bagel Running) won and Robin Lu ’22 team (Pot and Glove) was one of two runners up.

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Annual Innovation Challenge Solves Campus Problems

HC Launch, the student incubator through the Ciocca Center, hosted the fall Innovation Challenge on Saturday, November 9, 2019. Building off of last spring’s Innovation Challenge, this event brought students together to brainstorm problems centered around issues on campus at Holy Cross stemming from the Engage Summit and to ideate potential solutions to these problems.
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First HC Entrepreneurship Week Ends With the Annual Shark Tank Competition

Through the Ciocca Center for Business, Ethics, and Society, the College held its annual Shark Tank Competition on Thursday, March 28.   Entrepreneurship Week ended with a bang as the six competing teams went all-in asking for the big cash prize: Bidly, Equanimity Project, Feel Good Dog Food, Pledger, Sanctuary, and Wilox.

Thank you to our judges for making the tough decisions!

    • Mary Moran ‘77, CEO at MCM Financial Consulting
    • PJ Sansonetti ’93, General Manager, Carole Kitchen and Bath Design
    • Roy Vella ‘90, Business Development, Ripple
    • Daniel Klinghard, Director of JD Power Center at Holy Cross
      ›Judging for the Ignite Fund Recipient

In-Kind Services Awards:

  • Matt Campbell ‘14 at Neurala will advise Bidly on sales and business development.
  • Diego Mas Gonzalez ‘12 at General Assembly will advise Sanctuary on user experience.
  • Bill Kelly ‘92 at Exosome Diagnostics will advise Feel Good Dog Food on scaling the business.
  • John Loughnane ‘87 at Nutter will provide Wilox with a Power Legal Lunch.


Cash Prize Awards: A tie for first place!

  • Feel Good Dog Food: $3,000
  • Wilox: $3,000
  • Sanctuary won $2,600
    • the “People’s Choice” award: $100
    • the Ignite Fund: $2,600

Curious what these student-run businesses are all about? Continue reading “First HC Entrepreneurship Week Ends With the Annual Shark Tank Competition”

Shark Tank Competition: Winners Circle

S15 Shark Tank Winners
Photo Credit: Chris Christo

 

On Thursday, March 26th, 21 student teams competed for over $10,000 in prize money.  Teams pitched their product/service idea to a panel of alumni judges for the chance to win! Students were given five minutes to pitch with just two minutes of Q&A, thanks to our avid time keeper Sophia Jin ’15.

With so many teams and such high stakes you can imagine how stiff the competition was, never mind skimming down to just two final winners for the overall prizes.  A big thank you to our alumni judging panel, listed below.

 

 

2015 Judges:

Bob Allard ’91, Co-Founder, extensionEngine (eE)
John Calcio, VP, Channel Development, QStream
Tom Flynn ’87, Managing Partner, SV Life Sciences
Ben Kaplan ’16, Co-Founder & CEO, WiGO & 2013 Holy Cross Shark Tank Winner
Davide Marini, Co-Founder & CEO, Firefly BioWorks
Mary Moran ’77, Financial Services Consultant and Contractor

Spring 2015 Competition Winners:

Serious Start-Up Winners

John Tabone ’15 and Sean Donoghue
$7,500 to First Place: STUDILY is a productivity suite that allows students to plan their coursework, track their progress, and collaborate with classmates.

Andrew Valencia ’15, Michael Casey ’15, James LaVersci ’15
$4,000 for Second Place: SRKA (pronounced ser-ka) is a newsfeed platform that enables recipients of blast emails to manage their responses to these emails and an online event management software for high school/college student involvement offices to track current and upcoming events.

Clever Idea Winners

$250 awarded to Michael Carboni ’18
GAVEL is an app that summarizes current legislative bills that are on the floor for voting. This app summarizes the key points with a highlighted 1-2 page nonpartisan summary. The language of the response will be written at an early high school reading level so teachers can implement this resource into the classroom and all people can understand. The app is broken down into 3 sections: agenda, bill summary, and definitions.

$250 awarded to Alex Yeo ’15
TAP AND TEACH is a mobile app that connects students to qualified tutors.  Tap and Teach offers affordable on-demand tutoring and provides tutors with a consistent source of income.

Thanks to all the teams who competed! Click to view more photos of the event on our Facebook page.