{"id":51940,"date":"2022-04-26T10:26:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T14:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=51940"},"modified":"2022-04-29T08:39:03","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T12:39:03","slug":"sophomore-wins-sullivan-foundations-pitch-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2022\/sophomore-wins-sullivan-foundations-pitch-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophomore wins Sullivan Foundation\u2019s pitch contest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s important to understand the value of your environment in affecting your motivation, self-confidence, and just general outlook. Surround yourself with people that you want to imitate someday.<\/p>Hebron Mekuria, Winner of The sullivan foundation’s IGNITE RETREAT Pitch Contest<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When sophomore Hebron Mekuria <\/strong>attended The Sullivan Foundation\u2019s Ignite Retreat, she didn\u2019t know there would be a business pitching competition. The weekend had offered Mekuria a chance to dig into her entrepreneurial dreams with information and tools, the support of her peers and plenty of inspiration. She figured she would enter the competition to get some practice for her entrepreneurship class final at Eastern Mennonite University, and take a shot at the cash prize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then she won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mekuria, an engineering major<\/a> and Yoder\/Webb Scholar<\/a>, is passionate about the emotional, psychological, and social needs of children. In her native country of Ethiopia, Mekuria sees a need for empowerment, starting with literacy. Her winning idea works to promote early development of reading habits by creating resources for Ethiopian preschoolers, specifically in the Amharic language. Her win earned her funding to begin the project, and business mentorship connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biannual Sullivan Foundation\u2019s Ignite Retreat<\/a> is geared towards social impact, seeking to equip students who have ideas with tools for implementing them. The foundation itself supports \u201cservice-oriented college students\u201d in the southern United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hebron Mekura at the Ignite Retreat.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The weekend was filled with workshops, networking activities and space for participants to grow ideas and projects, or develop them more fully. Among the different societal issues participants considered at this event were the more than 90% domestic violence rate in Pakistan, the disconnect between dieting and health, the lack of inclusive gyms for LGBTQ+ people, and more. At the end of the retreat, there was a pitching and prototyping competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This win meant a great deal to Mekuria\u2014it was validation of the promise of her plan. \u201cWhen I found out that I won, I was in disbelief, and the biggest thing for me was that I felt seen,\u201d Mekuria says. \u201cSomehow, out of all the brilliant and ambitious students there, being chosen in the pitching competition just made it feel like my idea was actually worth being pursued, and the problems I identified were worth being solved.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spud Marshall, the Sullivan Foundation\u2019s director of student engagement and leader of the retreat, commented in the foundation\u2019s coverage of Mekuria<\/a>. \u201cWe love working with students like Hebron who are actively making a difference in their communities,\u201d he said. \u201cHer peers selected her project to receive funding to take the next step and bring her idea to life! We are thrilled to offer her both financial support and mentorship as she gets started.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mekuria\u2019s biggest takeaways? \u201cIt’s important to understand the value of your environment in affecting your motivation, self-confidence, and just general outlook,\u201d Mekuria says. \u201cSurround yourself with people that you want to imitate someday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once classes end, Mekuria\u2019s next step will be to meet up with an attendee of Ignite who wants to work with her, and, she says, \u201cget this thing off the ground!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s important to understand the value of your environment in affecting your motivation, self-confidence, and just general outlook. Surround yourself with people that you want to imitate someday. Hebron Mekuria, ... read more about Sophomore wins Sullivan Foundation\u2019s pitch contest<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4515,5591,5861,17562,17364,5730],"tags":[],"feature":[17427,17423,17426,17241],"class_list":["post-51940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-business-and-leadership","category-conferences-and-events","category-digest","category-engineering","category-undergraduate-programs","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-featured-undergrad","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nSophomore wins Sullivan Foundation\u2019s pitch contest - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2022\/sophomore-wins-sullivan-foundations-pitch-contest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sophomore wins Sullivan Foundation\u2019s pitch contest - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s important to understand the value of your environment in affecting your motivation, self-confidence, and just general outlook. 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