college mcp-logo-header-white mcpherson

‘Horizon Faculty Fellowship’ at McPherson College Helps Entrepreneurial Professors

There are teachers and professors who look beyond the day-to-day work, who dream farther, and who help their students develop an innovative mindset. These professors see clearly what lies on the horizon, so this year McPherson College introduced the “Horizon Faculty Fellowship” program to support and reward MC faculty who want to incorporate the ideals of entrepreneurship into their courses.

Abbey Archer-Rierson, chief of staff and head of the entrepreneurship initiative at McPherson College, said that interested MC faculty had to apply to become fellows and that six were chosen from among the applicants. Archer-Rierson said this first group of faculty fellows represent the broad variety of disciplines taught at McPherson College – business, art, automotive restoration, and chemistry.

“At McPherson College, we believe that everyone can benefit from being more creative, more innovative, and by pursuing their passions – in short, by being more entrepreneurial,” Archer-Rierson said. “These Horizon Faculty Fellows are fantastic examples of how entrepreneurship can change students’ educational experience.”

The fellowship program gives a grant to the faculty fellows to create a new course or modify an existing course to incorporate entrepreneurship concepts. In addition, they will be taking workshop sessions throughout the year to develop the knowledge and skills needed to implement their ideas. These sessions will include a variety of assigned readings on entrepreneurship, followed by group discussion. The fellows will also serve as mentors to the next group of Horizon Faculty fellows.

Here’s a look at the ideas the first fellows will be developing:

Dr. Manjula Koralegedara

Dr. Manjula Koralegedara

Dr. Manjula Koralegedara, assistant professor of chemistry

When Dr. Koralegedara first came to the United States, she passed on an opportunity to start a company importing spices from Sri Lanka. She declined because she saw it as too risky and didn’t fully realize what it meant to be an entrepreneur. Now, she regrets that she didn’t take the opportunity.

Through this story, Dr. Koalegedara said she learned how entrepreneurial education is valuable to students across all majors. For her fellowship grant, Dr. Koralegedara is working to incorporate the entrepreneurial concepts of critical thinking and sustainability into a general education chemistry course that emphasizes “Green” chemistry. The class will also develop an entrepreneurial mindset by creating a class project incorporating these concepts.

Ann Zerger

Ann Zerger

Ann Zerger, associate professor of art, and Garrick Green, associate professor of technology

For those outside of McPherson College, a partnership between an automotive restoration professor and an art professor may seem an unlikely collaboration. But for those who know how entrepreneurship takes shape at MC, it should come as no surprise that professors are working across traditional “silos.”

Zerger and Green have proposed a joint project centered on the two 3-D printers that are located in Templeton and Hess. They propose making more use of the printers by incorporating them into existing classes or a new class. In particular, they want to explore how to use the printers as the first step in creating metal castings of obsolete car parts or artistic works.

Dr. Allan van Asselt

Dr. Allan van Asselt

Dr. Allan van Asselt, professor of chemistry

Science isn’t the area of study immediately conjured up by the word “entrepreneurship,” but principles for good scientists and entrepreneurs share much in common – including problem-solving, creativity, curiosity and passion.

Allan van Asselt is receiving a Horizon Faculty Fellowship to develop the concepts of entrepreneurship in both introductory chemistry courses as well as more advanced research courses (Research Methods, Junior Seminar and Senior Research).

His work will involve both re-framing existing elements of these courses in the context of entrepreneurship and adding new lessons that will focus on entrepreneurial concepts important to scientists.

Dr. Dale Hartley

Dr. Dale Hartley

Dr. Dale Hartley, assistant professor of business

Students may be good at arguing, some might say, but what about negotiation?

Dale Hartley’s proposed course is “The Art and Practice of Negotiation.” Not only is negotiation an essential (but rarely taught) skill for business professionals, it also applies across a variety of careers and avocations.

Hartley said that the course could benefit students at MC in all majors, as well as benefit the local business and professional community to learn this important art.

Michaela Groeblacher

Michaela Groeblacher

Michaela Groeblacher, assistant professor of art

Groeblacher is receiving a Horizon Faculty Fellowship for her class concept – “Art and Entrepreneurship” (or “Professional Practices for Artists”)

The class concept is working to combat the stereotype of the “starving artist” and dispel the notion that there’s not a way to make a living as an artist. The class will teach artists the principles of good business and self-promotion to achieve success in an artistic career.

President of McPherson College to Present Doctoral Research at International Symposium

Dr. Michael Schneider, the President of McPherson College, will present his doctoral research at an international symposium in June.

The Deshpande Symposium in Lowell, Mass., brings together those interested in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in college and university environments. This year the symposium will be held June 9-11.

Other institutions presenting at the symposium include Arizona State University, Babson College, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, MIT, Rice University and Yale University.

Dr. Schneider will present his doctoral research, which he successfully defended with distinction on April 8. The successful defense has earned Schneider his degree in Higher Education Management at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania (Penn) Graduate School of Education.

“This is an opportunity to share my research results and tell a great story about how entrepreneurship education is growing beyond business schools and moving out across college campuses,” Schneider said.

For his research, Dr. Schneider completed one of the first empirical studies of cross-campus entrepreneurship education. He studied the Kauffman Campuses Initiative, which led to nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in grants to spur cross-campus entrepreneurship initiatives at 18 colleges and universities.

From his results, Schneider concluded that the initiative was effective and viable. Schneider said that he also discovered “linchpins” to sustain cross-campus entrepreneurship education efforts – lessons that he can even apply to McPherson College’s own entrepreneurship initiative.

Harter Lecturer at McPherson College Talks On the Life-and-Death Difference a Bit of Soap Makes

Three facts of Derreck Kayongo’s life led to him creating a global social venture that saves lives.

  1. His father was a soap-maker.
  2. He saw the deadly effects of poor hygiene in refugee camps while working for humanitarian agencies, such as American Friends Service Committee, Amnesty International, and CARE International.
  3. He stayed in an American hotel and confessed to “stealing” the bathroom soap, only to discover the unused bars were just thrown away every day.

These experiences led Kayongo to co-found – with his wife, Sarah – of The Global Soap Project in 2009. The project takes partially used soap from hotels and turns it into new, refined soap for those in need around the world.

“Events are what give us the impetus to do good things,” Kayongo said.

Kayongo talked about the Global Soap Project and how it came to be at McPherson College’s Harter Lecture on Wednesday, April 8.

Today, the Global Soap Project produces 30,000 bars of soap each week, and since its founding has provided more than 500,000 bars to countries including Afghanistan, Swaziland, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Haiti. The project led to CNN naming him a “CNN Hero” in 2011.

During the lecture, Kayongo said that more than 800 million bars of soap are thrown away every year in the United States. The project reclaims some of that and provides it to those in countries where the spread of disease among people who are unable to thoroughly wash their hands is a real and daily threat.

Giving out the bars of soap to a community is a celebration, Kayongo said. Whereas mothers in the U.S. may respond to a gift with a, “Thank you,” the reaction among those who need soap is quite different.

“We scream and we dance and we laugh and we cry together,” he said.

At times, he’s had to convince mothers to use the gift, however, because some of them are holding on to holding something more powerful when they hold on to that bar of soap.

“I told them about the passion of American philanthropy,” he said, “And they saw it as a sign of hope.”

The lecture closed with Ayongo teaching the audience a song from Uganda, where he was born, and then leading everyone in joining together.

Beyond providing life-saving soap around the world, Kayongo said he hopes the project has helped to change the mindset of American industry as well.

“We need to help corporations understand that their ultimate role is to help society,” he said.

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.

McPherson College’s Jump Start Kansas Competition Gives Cash for High School Students’ Great Ideas

From grocery carts that can turn on a dime to a business that will wait for you in line – and more – McPherson College’s Jump Start Kansas Day competition brought 21 high school students to campus to compete for up to $500 cash for their great ideas.

The annual event, which was on Feb. 12 this year, is designed to encourage and develop the entrepreneurial mindset in high school students – in the state and beyond.

Students came to campus to present their ideas in front of a judging panel, tour campus, attend a mini-class on entrepreneurship, and make connections with student entrepreneurs currently attending McPherson College.

Thomas Nicklesen, a junior from Newton, Kan., presented his business idea called “Stand.For.Me.” The concept was to use an app or a website to connect people who want popular, premium event tickets but don’t want to wait in long lines for them, with “Stand Ins” who are willing to hire themselves to wait in line instead.

Nicklesen said the experience of presenting his idea was a little like a business-pitch television show – such as “Shark Tank,” but without the aggression and hostility.

“If I’m going to start a business, I’m going to have to talk to people,” he said. “And this is a hate-free environment for that. They made me feel comfortable.”

Kaylee Hill, a junior at Heights High School in Wichita, Kan., presented her idea for a non-profit – “Flower Power.” The concept is to create a free after-school program for girls ages 5 to 17, providing time for tutoring, learning about etiquette, and many other life skills.

“Even girls who don’t have friends, I want them to have a place to go and make new friends,” Hill said.

President Michael Schneider addressed all of the competitors at a lunch following the presentations. He shared with the students that the sort of competition they just experienced is like a program offered to current McPherson College students – the Horizon Fund – which gives grants of up to $500 about three times every year.

“McPherson College cares about ideas,” Schneider said. “This is just what we do.”

He encouraged these high school students to consider McPherson College to continue their education and further develop their entrepreneurial skills.

“You all have one thing in common,” he said. “You like to start things. We were so impressed with your passion and preparation. You exceeded our expectations.”

The full list of students and their Jump Start Kansas ideas are as follows:

  • Blake Janes, Wichita, Kan. – A daycare that focuses on teaching kids sports skills.
  • Aaron Thomas, Clearwater, Kan. – A shopping cart that can spin 360 degrees around its center.
  • Daniel Serres, Independence, Mo. – D.A. Socks: a trendy online sock company.
  • Mikayleigh Wilson, Newton, Kan. – Create a photography and portrait business, focused on making personal connections and taking photos using natural lighting rather than a studio setting.
  • Cheyenne Bosley, Haysville, Kan. – Create a discount cards fundraiser option to make money and help schools, churches, youth groups and youth athletic teams raise money for their organizations.
  • Zac Angleton, Wichita, Kan. – A mobile pet grooming business based in a converted RV or trailer.
  • Cloe Coons and Amanda Lolling, both of Haysville, Kan. – “Elaborate Embellishments”: a decorating service company, focusing on quality seasonal decorating.
  • Kaylee Hill, Wichita, Kan. – “Flower Power”: A non-profit offering after-school activities and education for girls and teenagers.
  • Jared Goering and Spencer Steinert, both of McPherson, Kan. – A device that tracks biomedical information such as one’s pulse.
  • Abbey Bertholf, Winfield, Kan. – Develop a golf accessory that is seat connected to a standing golf bag.
  • Janae McKinney, McPherson, Kan. – Begin a local dog training service, based on her decade of experience training her own animals in 4-H.
  • Kyle McCall, Topeka, Kan. – Develop a product that is a smartphone cover but also has a built-in screen on the back side of the phone, allowing for a completely customized case design.
  • Eli Minson, Topeka, Kan. – “Kicksclusive”: A business focusing on carrying limited edition and other exclusive sneakers in a local business.
  • Will Adler, Winfield, Kan. – Developing a bagless lawn mower that instead of mulching the grass and leaving it in clumps on the year, will incinerate the clippings.
  • Vanessa Ramirez, Independence, Mo. – Create a Spanish and English education and translation business, focusing on fostering communication between immigrants to the U.S. from Spanish speaking countries.
  • Tate Brumfield, Andover, Kan. – Create a grocery and market that focuses entirely on green, organic foods – drawn entirely from local farmers and ranchers.
  • Carleigh Camacho, Andover, Kan. – Begin a leadership education academy for teens and young adults.
  • Thomas Nicklesen, Newton, Kan. – “Stand.For.Me.”: A business connecting those who want high-demand tickets or other items with “Stand Ins” – people willing to wait in line for pay so the users don’t have to.
  • James Vansyckle, Clearwater, Kan. – A business making custom lights from empty liquor bottles.

Global Enterprise Challenge: Ethiopia

As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2014, McPherson College is launching a challenge for students to help bring awareness and raise funds for the PET mobility project and Ethiopia Reads charities.