Students prepare for contest

Ambitious entrepreneurs are tweaking their plans in preparation for this weekend’s Carolina Challenge, UNC’s first entrepreneurial competition.

Competitors, each fighting for a piece of the $25,500 in awards, will come from two tracks — business and social. The proposals run the gamut from a patented treatment for stopping nose bleeds in the business track to a public residential high school for foster children in the social track.

“Many of these enterprises may not have evolved without the incentive of the challenge,” said John Kasarda, director of the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative.

A panel of high-profile judges — including top University administrators and Judith Cone, executive vice president of the Kauffman Foundation — will examine business plans and reward a grand prize, a second place and an honorable mention within each track.

The Carolina Challenge is one of 10 comprehensive programs launched by the entrepreneurial initiative to aid the transformation of ideas into enterprises.

Kasarda said he is pleased with the progress of the initiative, which received a five-year, $3.5 million grant from the Kauffman Foundation last year.

“It’s been a very pleasant surprise to see how entrepreneurship has been embraced across the College of Arts & Sciences — not just by students, but also by faculty,” Kasarda said. “They want to add value not just to their bank account but to the University community and others.”

The Princeton Review cited the entrepreneurial initiative as a factor in UNC’s recent No. 1 ranking in entrepreneurship.

And while Kasarda said ranking the success of the programs is like choosing a favorite among your children, he cited the development of the entrepreneurship minor — a five-course minor open to all students, regardless of major — as an important step in the right direction.

“We set the bar high for all the programs, and I think we cleared it for all the programs,” he said.

Wendy Guillies, a representative from the Kauffman Foundation, said UNC is “an outstanding school of entrepreneurship.”

She added that the interdisciplinary nature of entrepreneurship lends itself to a liberal arts institution. The University’s strong leadership and entrepreneurial track record before it received the grant is what made it such an attractive candidate, she said.

“Campuses are a hotbed for our future offspring of leaders,” Guillies said.

The University’s future leaders will have an opportunity to prove themselves in the final round of the challenge, organizers said. The two winning teams will be announced during a celebration dinner Saturday evening.

Kasarda said the influence of the challenge will extend long after participants leave the competition.

“A number of these organizations will spin off after students have graduated and will add to the economy of North Carolina, creating jobs, wealth or benefits for the people of the state,” Kasarda said.

Zach Clayton, a sophomore competing for the social-track prize, said initiative leaders are establishing a culture of entrepreneurship on campus.

“It’s not only teaching critical-thinking skills and business skills — it’s teaching about making dreams a reality,” he said.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.