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Kean Empowers Student Entrepreneurs at Annual Business Plan Competition

A Kean University student’s concept for high-tech activewear with a focus on sustainability took one of the top prizes in Kean’s recent Business Plan Competition, in which young entrepreneurs from several colleges competed for start-up funding for their business ideas.

Joceline Guerra, a senior management and business analytics student from Elizabeth, took the $6,000 top prize in the Next Gen Innovators Track for her business concept, Elyon Activewear, to offer affordable, high-quality and technologically advanced performance sportswear.

“I’m so grateful for this because I realize that I’m not the only one who sees a bright future for Elyon Activewear,” Guerra said. “I really want Elyon to grow, to be able to tell the story of how it started from scratch, how we competed, and how Kean University has been key for this success.”

Hosted by Kean’s College of Business and Public Management (CBPM), the competition awarded a total of $25,000 to winning students in three categories. The Next Gen Innovators Track focused on groundbreaking business concepts; the Community Roots Track supported traditional, community-focused businesses; and the third track was for high school students. 

“This year’s competition encouraged students to be innovators in their communities,” said Jin Wang, Ph.D., dean of CBPM. “It was an opportunity for students to apply their classroom knowledge, hone their entrepreneurial skills, and make a significant impact with their ideas.”

Kean and Wenzhou-Kean University (WKU) students competed alongside students from other institutions, including NJIT and Montclair State University. Twelve teams chosen from the 64 submissions pitched their business plans to a panel of professional judges – business leaders and entrepreneurs – at the Miron Student Center on Kean’s Union campus on Monday, April 22. 

Kean and WKU students took eight of the top 10 prizes. 

The student entrepreneurs represented a variety of majors, including computer science, communication and public administration. Business proposals were also varied, offering revolutionary health and wellness programs, AI-based systems, educational training and more.

“The diverse array of projects this year not only demonstrates the innovative spirit of our students but also reinforces the vibrant entrepreneurial culture we nurture here at Kean,” said Assistant Professor Ipek Kocoglu, Ph.D., co-chair of the competition. 

“We are immensely proud of the collaborative spirit and hard work everyone brought to this year's competition,” said Assistant Professor Saran Nurse, Ph.D., co-chair of the competition.

This summer, competitors will participate in a mentorship program designed to further develop and implement their ideas.

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Hotelie’s Brown Butter Startup Wins Hospitality Business Plan Competition

Jonah gershon’s brown butter in a stick may soon be coming to a grocery store near you..

Spekld founder Jonah Gershon ’24 delivering his winning presentation at the Hospitality Business Plan Competition, April 20 (photo by Patrick Shanahan)

Jonah Gershon ’24, who launched a startup to produce brown butter, received the $50,000 first-place prize for his business—spekld—in the 14th Annual Cornell Hospitality Business Plan Competition on April 20 in Statler Auditorium.

Gershon, senior in the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration , said he was still trying to process the news that he had been awarded the top prize after the winners were announced. “I sometimes tell myself that I’m just a butter company and there are students out there making software and working on climate change,” he said. “But after presenting, I knew that I did the best I could.”

The hospitality competition was the second Gershon has won at Cornell in the past five months. Last November, he received first place in Cornell’s Hospitality Pitch Deck Competition , garnering $3,000 for his startup. Both competitions, open to all Cornell students, are hosted by the Nolan’s School’s Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship .

While the fall competition focuses on a student team’s skills in pitching a startup, this semester’s contest required teams to develop business plans for their hospitality concept. More than 30 teams representing students across campus submitted proposals last October , and the field was narrowed down to five finalists for the last round of the competition.

A panel of three judges selected spekld as the winner because they said it showed the most promise of becoming a marketable product. The refrigerated brown butter, which will save bakers the 20 minutes it takes to melt butter on the stove to create the desired color and taste, will sell for $8 for half a pound, Gershon said.

“Everyone, no matter their cooking skills, shares this problem,” said Tyler Carrico, a judge and a partner with Thayer Ventures. “That is the start of the sound business concept. The tough part is producing it, but we hope this is a small step in the right direction to help him figure that out.”

Brown butter, a delicacy now available only in shelf-stable jars, also taps into growing consumer interest in cooking and buying specialty food products, said Diana Dobin, a judge who is CEO and chief sustainability officer with Valley Forge Fabrics. “We all know and recognize from our own lives that there’s a huge market in cooking, getting excited about baking, and using wonderful ingredients,” she said.

Gershon, who is from West Hartford, CT, came up with the idea of producing the first-ever brown butter in a stick while competing in the Food Network’s “Christmas Cookie Challenge” in April 2022. He had been recruited by the network to participate based on the photos of his baked goods on his Instagram account . Gershon made a batch of Mexican hot-chocolate-flavored sugar cookies using brown butter, which he had to produce from scratch, in the cookie challenge. “I don’t think that was the reason I lost the competition, but I think it was part of it,” he said. “It took 20 minutes out of your hour and a half to do the competition.”

He began developing his startup while taking a Nolan School course, Communications for Entrepreneurs, in the fall of 2022. After winning the Pitch Deck Competition last November, he started pilot production runs of spekld at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, operated by Cornell in Geneva.

With the prize money from the business plan competition, Gershon hopes to find a manufacturing facility to produce spekld so he can sell it in grocery stores. He plans to offer spekld at the Ithaca Farmers Market this year, at Wegmans and GreenStar in Ithaca in the fall, and at Whole Foods, Zabar’s, and Eataly in New York City in 2025.

“I would like to work on this full-time,” he said. “I’d love to see how our next production run goes and then look at what are the next steps in scaling it.”

The Hospitality Business Plan Competition’s second-place prize of $15,000 went to AREA Event Services, a startup that builds event technology software to provide business insights to event owners and managers. Team members included Hadley Jetmore ’25 (Nolan School), Calvin Lee ’24 (College of Engineering), and Emma Warden ’25 (College of Arts and Sciences).

The third-place prize of $10,000 was awarded to GreenAcres Processing , a company building an industrial hemp supply chain of fiber and hurd for use in manufactured goods. Team members included cofounders Hailee Greene and Danielle Falcon, both MBA ’24, students in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, and Alex Wright ’27(Nolan School).

Honorable mentions were given to Beacon, which offers an accessible luxury glamping experience to guests with disabilities, and to CareerVice, which develops content on recruitment opportunities for young professionals.

Judges for the Hospitality Business Plan Competition finalists were Meli James ’00, cofounder, Mana Up, and president, Hawaii Venture Capital Association; Diana Dobin, CEO and chief sustainability officer, Valley Forge Fabrics; and Tyler Carrico, Partner, Thayer Ventures.

Linda Canina , academic director of the Pillsbury Institute and Georges C. and Marian St. Laurent Professor in Applied Business Management, said that the caliber of the presentations in this year’s business plan competition was impressive. “It’s evidence that our student teams have raised the bar once again, showcasing a remarkable improvement in their ability to articulate their ideas with clarity and conviction,” she said.

Related stories:

Brown butter rises to the top at Pitch Deck Competition

Hotelie Aims to Bring Brown Butter to a Dairy Case Near You

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Stary Oskol

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Stary Oskol is the Belgorod Region’s second city by population and today consists of two main parts: the historical centre on the hill and the new centre made up of blocks of housing estates (mikroraiony). It is named after the river on which it stands on; the word stary (old) was added to distinguish it from the new settlement of Novy Oskol (New Oskol). Just outside the city is an impressive cave-monastery complex.

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Kholkovsky Monastery

Travel outside the city to the nearby settlement of Kholki to visit the Kholkovsky Monastery - an impressive cave monastery.

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Walk around the historical part of the city, located where once a wooden fortress stood to protect Russia’s southern borders, and visit the museum here.

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Have a look at all the war memorial in the city - in recognition of Stary Oskol’s status as a City of Military Glory.

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UND entrepreneurship major wins Middleton Business Plan Competition

The UND Nistler College of Business & Public Administration is excited to announce the winner of its Middleton Business Plan Competition hosted at Nistler Hall on April 19 and 20.

Organized by the Middleton School of Entrepreneurship & Management in the Nistler College, entrepreneurship faculty Sanjay Goel and Sheila Hanson coordinated the event in partnership with the North Dakota Small Business Development Center — helping participants prepare to compete.

Open to all UND students from any major, a total of 22 student teams entered the competition. In the preliminary round, 11 student teams presented business plans to 10 judges.

Four finalists advanced to the final round.

Judges included Amy Henley, dean of the Nistler College; Tom Shorma, retired CEO/president of WCCO Belting; Barry Wilfart, CEO/president of The Chamber Grand Forks – East Grand Forks; Hal Gershman, successful Grand Forks business owner and former president of the Grand Forks City Council; and Monica Musich, former CEO of Valley Dairy.

Entrepreneurship major Cooper Johnson won the Sandra Braathen Memorial Business Plan Grand Prize of $15,000 for his Johnson Curbing Business Plan.

The competition’s top prize is named in honor of the late Sandy Braathen, Langemo Faculty Fellow and professor in the Middleton School of Entrepreneurship & Management.

Another entrepreneurship major, Charlie Andrys, received the runner-up $10,000 prize for his BitGrow Business Plan.

About UND Nistler College of Business & Public Administration

The Nistler College is the largest college of business and public administration in North Dakota and serves approximately 1,800 undergraduate and 300 graduate students annually. The Nistler College is in the top 5% of business schools worldwide through accreditation by AACSB International (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business).

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Laura Arneson, Director of External Relations, Nistler College of Business & Public Administration [email protected] , 701.777.6937

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Oil falls to 7-week low on surprise build in US storage, Middle East ceasefire hopes

Oil prices fell about 3% to a seven-week low on Wednesday on a surprise build in U.S. crude stocks, the prospect of a Middle East ceasefire agreement and persistent U.S. inflation dampening the expected pace of interest rate cuts and oil demand growth.

Biden administration bans noncompete agreements, setting up legal showdown with business groups

The Biden administration has issued a nationwide ban on the ability of employers to make their workers sign noncompete agreements, a move regulators said would help boost employee pay but which is set to be challenged in court by business groups.

In a ruling Tuesday afternoon, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said noncompete clauses would henceforth be illegal. The measure was necessary, it said, for "protecting the fundamental freedom of workers to change jobs, increasing innovation, and fostering new business formation."

“Noncompete clauses keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism,” said FTC chair Lina M. Khan in a statement. “The FTC’s final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market.”

The FTC estimates nearly one in five Americans are subject to noncompetes. They have grown increasingly common in lower wage or hourly work industries like fast food franchises, restaurants, and security firms, where some employers have sought to limit the ability of workers to effectively raise their pay by looking for work at competing establishments.

In addition to banning all new noncompetes, the FTC's rule applies to all existing noncompete agreements. Employers will now have to provide notice to workers bound to a current noncompete that it will not be enforced against them.

The rule was hailed by labor groups and left-leaning policy experts.

"Noncompetes are about reducing competition, full stop. It’s in their name," said Heidi Shierholz, president of the progressive nonprofit Economic Policy Institute. "Noncompetes are bad for workers, bad for consumers, and bad for the broader economy. This rule is an important step in creating an economy that is not only strong but also works for working people."

The AFL-CIO, America's largest labor group, praised the new rule in a post on X Tuesday, saying noncompete agreements "trap workers from finding better jobs, drive down wages, and stifle competition."

But business groups are already hitting out at the ban, saying noncompetes are essential to protecting trade secrets and proprietary information. The groups also say noncompetes ultimately help workers by engendering a more collaborative firm environment and limiting so-called "free riders," or employees who seek to capitalize on a specific company's methods and taking that knowledge elsewhere.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s largest business lobby, said it plans to sue the FTC over the ruling. In a statement , it called the ban an "unlawful power grab."

“This decision sets a dangerous precedent for government micromanagement of business and can harm employers, workers, and our economy," it said. 

Separately. a Dallas-based tax services firm filed a lawsuit in Texas federal court — which has proven hostile to Biden administration rulings — challenging not only the ban but the very structure of the FTC itself.

"We stand firm in our commitment to serve the rightful interest of every company to retain its proprietary formulas for success taught in good faith to its own employees,” said chairman and CEO G. Brint Ryan said in a statement.

The FTC's rule is set to go into effect in August, but is unlikely to be enforced until the court challenges are resolved, something that could take years.

Rob Wile is a breaking business news reporter for NBC News Digital.

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WSU expecting record number of injured and orphaned wildlife

Wildlife rehabilitators at Washington State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital are accustomed to caring for hungry and chirping mouths once spring rolls around, but since the start of April the crew has seen a substantial increase in injured and orphaned wildlife over past years.

And they are anticipating record numbers through the summer.

Much of the uptick can be attributed to the recent announcement that Blue Mountain Wildlife, a rehabilitation center in Pendleton, Oregon, is no longer operating out of its central Washington location and is unable to accept wildlife rescued in Washington. Now, many of the hundreds of animals the center typically receives from the Evergreen State will be heading to WSU Pullman.

That’s a lot of additional hungry mouths to feed, which, WSU wildlife veterinarian Dr. Marcie Logsdon said, will severely stress the service’s limited budget. Donations and assistance from the public will help WSU to continue to care for as many animals as possible.

“Even before the announcement, we were spending more on wildlife rehabilitation than we were getting on donations,” Logsdon said. “We will really need the public’s help for us to continue to provide the best care for these animals so they can be released back into the wild.”

In a typical year, WSU’s wildlife rehabilitation service takes in more than 600 wildlife patients ranging from owls, hawks and other birds to squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, foxes and deer. Numbers usually begin to increase in April and remain high into August.

With intake numbers expected to rise, Logsdon anticipates more than just a strain on the budget, as the service’s staffing and capacity will also be affected.

Currently, many of the wildlife patients are housed at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, while others are sheltered in the wildlife hospital ward in nearby McCoy Hall. Some raptors are accommodated at WSU’s Stauber Raptor Facility . Logsdon said additional facilities are needed to meet long-term needs.

“We have outgrown our current facilities, and, long-term, we are hoping to put in a new wildlife-specific hospital and rehabilitation center,” she said. “That would help us to increase our capacity to care for animals and also ensure we are teaching veterinary students best practices when it comes to wildlife medicine and wildlife rehab.”

Transportation of injured and orphaned wildlife is also a pressing need, particularly from the Tri-Cities and Spokane areas. Those interested in helping can reach out to Logsdon at [email protected] for more information on how to contribute.

Logsdon said it is easy to mistake a healthy baby for one that may be orphaned or injured, and she reminds the public to call a wildlife rehabilitator before intervening. Calling ahead allows a wildlife rehabilitator the chance to assess the situation and to ensure the animal needs veterinary care or is orphaned. It also provides an opportunity to discuss how to safely handle the animal in question.

To reach the WSU wildlife service, call 509-335-0711 . Donations in support the WSU wildlife service and the care of injured or orphaned animals can be made to the Wildlife Care and Support Fund .

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