We were thrilled to kick off our first event of the semester on September 15th and 16th with our BIPOC Idea Workshop, "Success as Black Entrepreneurs: Stories and Insights for the Next Generation of UNH Students."

This webinar panel discussion shared stories from the trenches of several successful entrepreneurs of color (four of whom are UNH alumni!) and how they overcame challenges to launch their companies. It was geared to help aspiring students with any idea for a business know what the first and next steps should be to make a dream idea a reality.

This event featured:

With over 60 attendees for this event, many joining both session, it was clear that the stories and experiences shared by our speakers resonated with many of the attendees. Commented one student, "the best way to learn how to do something is to learn from people who have done it. The ECenter provided a great opportunity to hear from successful entrepreneurs as they explain the reality of being a part of a startup and their personal advice for success." Another student described the event as a "raw conversation between alumni and the struggles of the real word that will give us an insight when we graduate."

The goal of all our ECenter events is to motivate students to take the first or next step, discover their creativity, and embrace an entrepreneurial mindset. While the path of an entrepreneur is certainly not always easy, the personal experiences shared by our speakers of color help students prepare for the challenges and enjoy the successes ahead, while knowing they are not alone.

This event was sponsored by UNH Entrepreneurship Center (ECenter) in partnership with TRIO, the Beauregard Center, McNair Scholars Program, the Community, Equity, and Diversity Office, the National Society of Black Engineers, and MOSAICO.

How did you hear about the ECenter? 

How did the ECenter help you grow your company?  

What was your experience as part of the Summer Seed Grant? 

How has the ECenter influenced your future career path/what skills have you acquired? 

What do you want people to know about the ECenter?  

Students spent the event transitioning between the discussion of what ideas, innovation, and creativity are, and small breakout rooms where they collaborated to come up with their own definitions and examples. Explained Castelan, "What we can understand about creativity is the relationship between ideas and something that happens in our lives as human beings, and the results. And some of those results are innovation."

Students spend breakout session practicing their newly acquired skills with the "whisk exercise," where they had to come up with ways to utilize the common kitchen whisk. Student ideas ranged from light fixtures to jewelry, and everything in between. Commented one attendee, "I loved the bootcamp session! I learned so much about creativity."

The ability to look at a problem and find solutions that might not be obvious on the first glance is at the root of the ECenter's Idea Creation Bootcamp series. It's not about solving every problem right now - it's about having the mindset and the skills to address problems you see in life and come at them from a new perspective.

We look forward to hosting our next Idea Creation Bootcamp in the spring!

We were delighted to welcome three young entrepreneurs to the ECenter Speaker Series this fall! This special edition of our Speaker Series focused on the experiences of entrepreneurs a little closer to our student demographic. Geno Miller '17, co-founder and CEO of Shtudy, and Hannah Patten and Christina Firestone, both recent college graduates and founders of Hülya Swim, shared their start-up stories, peer to peer, in our first virtual Start-Up Speaker Series.

Hannah and Christina built Hülya Swim out of their mission to save the ocean and reduce plastic waste, leading to the successful launch of a bathing suit line. Geno launched Shtudy during his years at UNH, driven by the knowledge that companies needed to hire employees with both technology expertise and diversity. Earlier this fall, he moderated our BIPOC Idea Workshop, featuring his co-founder and CTO, Rayvoughn Millings '17, and several other alumni.

While our speaker events always leave students feeling inspired, hearing from entrepreneurs just a few years out of college gave our ECenter audience fresh motivation. Said one attendee, "the determination from Geno, Hannah and Christina was amazing; Geno, in how he brought his company back and is making it work this time around, and Christina and Hannah for persevering even though people didn't think they could."

These three young entrepreneurs shared how they turned their passions into successful businesses in a dynamic and interactive webinar that left students invigorated to pursue your own business dreams. Remarked one student, "this experience was enlightening and gave me motivation to continue with being creative in ideas for the future, because these young people were so successful!"

On Friday, November 6^th, the UNH Entrepreneurship Center (ECenter) kicked off its Hackathon in partnership with Seacoast-based GATHER Pantry Market. This 22-hour event was sponsored by the RiverStone Group. 38 students across eight teams gathered virtually for a kick-off event where representatives from Gather introduced the three competition categories - marketing, capacity, and distribution – areas where Gather sought student ideas for improvement. After the kick-off, teams worked individually until 8:30 pm, when they regrouped for a drop-in Q&A session, followed by student presentations at 11:30 am on Saturday, November 7^th.

Students from all five UNH colleges collaborated to present innovative, creative solutions to the challenges identified by Gather. The marketing category challenged students to focus on ways to reach customers who may not know Gather exists, the capacity category sought ways to leverage existing food prep infrastructure to increase production, and the distribution category explored ways to get meals to individuals without having them come to Gather.

Judges for this Hackathon were Deb Anthony, Executive Director of Gather; Seneca Bernard, Associate Executive Director of Gather; Eileen Groll Liponis, Executive Director of the NH Food Bank; and Beth Houlis, Director of Innovation and Communication, RiverStone.

Prizes ranged from $1,500 for the Grand Prize winner, $500 each for the “Best in Category” winners, and $150 for each runner-up team. Congratulations to Grand Prize winners Alec Damsell ’24 (CEPS), Ella Dandrade ’24 (CEPS), Madison McDonough ’23 (COLA), and Michelle Lee ’22 (CEPS)!

The Grand Prize winners provided their idea for the capacity category. “On the Go with Gather: Food Truck Edition” proposed solutions for Gather’s challenges of limited staff, no kitchen, and no easy way to pick up excess food from community donors, with the goals of increasing capacity and providing more meals, distributing USDA “kid meals,” and offering prepared ingredients to customers. They explored the cost of acquiring a food truck, proposed fundraisers, and even focused beyond their category on aspects of marketing and advertising.

Said Dandrade, “We wanted to look at this from a multidisciplinary approach, and we thought this could also tie into the other categories.” Added Lee, “Having a real problem situation made it more meaningful than a hypothetical situation.” For most of the team, this was their first time participating in a Hackathon.

Thank you to the RiverStone Group, Gather, and our judges, and our partners, the UNH Entrepreneurship Club and Changemaker Collaborative, for collaboration and support of this ECenter event.

Interested in being a Corporate Sponsor? Learn more here.