The tally is in and the award for top project in the JSU Social Entrepreneurship Business Plan Challenge is …. Drumroll please…. Mississippi Urban Organics!
The three dozen students — and half a dozen faculty advisors — who competed waited two days for the winner of the Challenge to be announced.
Mississippi Urban Organics includes:
Faculty advisor: Dr. Kenneth Russ
Business advisor: Mr. Steven Shelt, Garden-to-Table, LLC
Sierra Jackson
Javis Jones
D’Angelo Mitchell
The team’s business plan includes addressing urban blight, boosting employment and promoting health by farming on unused urban land owned by the university. The urban organic farm, at least in its initial stages, would grow tomatoes, say Jackson and Jones.
The plan will be further fleshed out before it becomes a reality, said Russ.
All the teams are “outstanding,” said JSU President Dr. Carolyn W. Meyers.
The competition, part of the statewide Blueprint Mississippi Social Business Challenge, was held Wednesday at the JSU College of Business. The awards were handed out Friday at an evening reception in the atrium of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology.
The award ceremony capped JSU’s Innovation Week activities, with events each day this week. The daily innovation seminars and talks and the excitement surrounding them made it “like Homecoming all over again,” said Dr. James C. Renick, provost and senior vice president for academic and student affairs.
“Innovation is truly the variable that will take us further,” Renick said. Pointing to the students and faculty attending the reception, he added: “This is intellectual Homecoming.”
Each team won an individual cash prize, said Dr. Ramin Maysami, dean of the College of Business. The winners won an additional cash prize and also will compete in the statewide Blueprint Mississippi challenge — and will be eligible for internships.
Blueprint Mississippi is an independent cooperative of organizations and leaders that conducted an objective review of Mississippi’s economic opportunities and recommended actions for putting Mississippi in the place of greatest opportunity.
The Blueprint Mississippi Social Business Challenge, supported by the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, invites teams of students to put their heads together and come up with a creative solution to address one of Mississippi’s most pressing problems. Open to any public university student, the challenge requires students to work in teams of six with at least one faculty adviser.
The teams included:
C3 Capital Creators
Faculty advisor: Dr. Don Causey
Marcus Bennett
Richard Caldwell
Scharlisa Davis
A’Kendra Lewis
Chris Ratliff
F.A.O., LLC (Fighting Against Obesity for a Healthy Lifestyle)
Faculty advisor: Dr. Marinelle Payton
Taylor Bembery
Kenya Gilkey
Clayton Jordan
Kaylin Kinchion
Vangerlena Smith
Yanyu Zhou
J’Arrive
Faculty advisor: Dr. John Calhoun
Jennifer Cotton
Josh McCormick
Jhasmine Odom
Meco Shoulders
Ronald Williams
Chelsey Turner
Team C.U.R.E.
Faculty advisors: Dr. Candace N. Carter and Dr. Shonda Lawrence
Terrance Moore
Wessie Sims
Regina Wilcox-Lewis
Alexis Woods
Hali Rose Wszolek
The Non-Profit Profit Makers: Commercial Kitchen Incubator at Lowry House
Faculty advisor: Dr. Kenneth Russ
Nakiya Beaman
Kendetric Bradly
Donna Cotton
Toni Francis
Jose Luque
Also honored: Dr. Loretta Moore, vice president, division of research and federal relations; Dr. William McHenry, executive director, Mississippi eCenter @ JSU; and Almesha Campbell, intellectual property manager; as well as the president’s executive officers, deans, staff and students — recognized by Dr. Deborah F. Dent, vice president, division of information technology and chief information officer.
Innovation Month continues next week:
Monday, November 17 – 19, 2014
Global Entrepreneurship Week (College of Business)
Thursday, November 20, 2014
8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
NSF HBCU-UP Outreach Workshop
Engineering Building
www.jsums.edu/research/event/innovationmonth