WKU News

The WKU Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation of the Gordon Ford College of Business awarded $3,250 to seven student teams that participated in the annual WKU Business Plan Competition.

The six WKU Business Plan Competition student team finalists and one alternate were selected from 16 entries.

• Kyla Ball, Entrepreneurship major from Hendersonville, Tenn. and Allie McCreery, Entrepreneurship major from Muncie, Ind. with Swatched
• Olivia Goff, Public Relations major from Franklin, Tenn. with Olive & Honey
• Bailey Dahlquist, Entrepreneurship major from Wheaton, Ill. and Maggie Blissett, Advertising major from Bowling Green, Ky. With RAW: A Cookie Dough Experience
• Casey Child, Economics major from Taylor Mill, Ky., Ben Higgins, Entrepreneurship major from Madisonville, Ky., Dillon Marksbury, Finance Management major from Englewood, Fla. and Joseph Martin, Entrepreneurship major from Hanson, Ky. with SteamAway
• Julie Deneen, Agriculture major from Elizabethtown, Ky., with Blake’s Buddies
• Victoria Wurzelbacher, Interdisciplinary Business major from Shepherdsville, Ky., with Wurzel Café
• Alternate: Ahmed Al-Raisi, Entrepreneurship major from Bowling Green, Ky. with Sim-Racing School

 “This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to share their venture concepts and receive feedback, as well as to move on to subsequent competition. Although we offer prizes, state and national competitions have substantial pools of prize money, and our students appear well positioned to compete in the spring.” said Dr. Whitney Peake, Director of the GFCB Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

With winning the 2018-19 WKU Business Plan Competition, these student teams have the opportunity to serve as the WKU Competition Team this spring in student entrepreneurial competitions like the Idea State U Competition, a statewide business plan competition designed to encourage innovation among college students. Participating in these opportunities, student teams have the potential of earning monetary prizes to assist in launching their business ventures.

Each student team received helpful questions and feedback from this year’s judges. Those judges were: Dr. Paula Potter, WKU Management Department Chair, Mr. Jeff Hook, Center for Research & Development and Small Business Accelerator Director, Dr. Jeffrey Katz, Oppitz Endowed Professor of Business and Management Professor, Dr. Dawn Bolton, Associate Management Professor, Mr. Nathan Cherry, WKU alumnus, realtor at Caldwell Banker Legacy Realtor Estate Group and property manager at Progressive Property Management Group, and Ms. Angela Reeves, owner and franchisee of Wild Eggs Bowling Green and Nashville.