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Horizon Fund at MC Funds More Student Ideas

A more joyful campus filled with songbirds, a service giving free spa facials, a business refurbishing old furniture – all great ideas from McPherson College students, all of which are receiving funds from MC’s Horizon Fund to help them turn from idea into reality.

The Horizon Fund was established in September of 2010 to promote liberal arts at the college by tapping into the entrepreneurial spirit of McPherson College students, providing micro-grants of up to $500. Any individual or team of McPherson College students in any major is eligible to apply for and to receive a grant. Since it started, the Horizon Fund has helped more than 200 MC students to pursue and explore their great ideas.

Recently, McPherson College named their most recent round of recipients – 14 students receiving grants for 13 entrepreneurial ideas.

Jordyn Lipe, sophomore, Hutchinson, Kan., has received grants from the Horizon Fund before – it was a grant that allowed her to start The Dog Bowl, which serves coffee and home-baked goods on campus. This time, though, her idea for a grant involves improving the outdoors at McPherson College by attracting songbirds to campus with birdfeeders and birdbaths.

“It would bring an extra quality to campus to be more nature-friendly,” she said.

Magenta Jackson, senior, Corpus Christi, Texas, previously received a grant for a service she calls “Princess Therapy,” which aims to help stressed-out students by giving them free spa facials. She got the idea from studies about cancer patients who performed better if they also received spa treatments as part of their therapy. This time, she’s come up with ways to make the service more self-sustaining.

Ashley Frankenbery, junior, Benton, Kan., is also a previous recipient of the fund to create a Pre-Health Club on campus, which has successfully held a Science Day for grade school students. This time, she is looking to start her own business finding old furniture and other discarded but useful items, refurbishing or changing them, and then reselling them at a profit. For example, she repainted an old dresser she received for free that she expects to sell for more than $100. She also plans to take old wine bottles and turn them into candle-lit lanterns.

Other recipients are:

  • Michael Janzer, sophomore, Peyton, Colo.: Start a textbook buy-back program offering more options and the potential to get more back for unwanted textbooks.
  • Allen Darmawan, senior, Aliso Viejo, Calif.: Create a space on campus where students can take “power naps” called “Zquenkes.”
  • Miranda Clark Ulrich, junior, Russell, Kan.: Expand her photography business with the ability to take professional portraits and headshots.
  • Joshua Lloyd, senior, Stafford, Va.: Create a professional car photography business.
  • Karl Timmerman, sophomore, Tulsa, Okla., and Jonathan Bubnis, junior, Del Ran, N.J. : Create an effective recycling program on campus.
  • Cierra Bowers, senior, Salina, Kan.: a freelance graphic design and marketing business targeting students and small businesses.
  • Andy Fabianski, sophomore, New Lenox, Ill.: Plans to incorporate his trim and upholstery business called “stitches.”
  • Joel Kellogg, sophomore, Munice, Ind.: Expanding his screen-printing business.
  • Megan McIntosh, junior, Great Bend, Kan.: Growing her dance studio called “On Poïnte”
  • Jacob San Martin, freshman, Perris, Calif.: Developing a self-charging phone case.