{"id":51999,"date":"2022-05-10T09:42:18","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T13:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=51999"},"modified":"2022-05-11T12:58:18","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T16:58:18","slug":"techstars-start-up-weekend-builds-confidence-in-emu-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2022\/techstars-start-up-weekend-builds-confidence-in-emu-entrepreneurs\/","title":{"rendered":"TechStars Start-up Weekend builds confidence in EMU entrepreneurs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three Eastern Mennonite University <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/business\/\">business students<\/a> participated in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techstars.com\/\">TechStars Start-Up Weekend<\/a> in early April at James Madison University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TechStars events are hosted around the United States and around the world. The organization is for anyone interested in entrepreneurship. Students from EMU participated along with those from JMU and VMI and community members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"highlight highlight-right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/business\/\">Learn more about EMU&#8217;s business and leadership program.<\/a><\/aside>\n\n\n\n<p>The event was organized by the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund, a nonprofit entrepreneurial support organization serving the Shenandoah Valley.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It was exciting to see a number of our EMU students involved in these regional events,\u201d said <strong>Jair Drooger<\/strong>, instructor of EMU\u2019s entrepreneurship class and director of EMU\u2019s Center for Innovation and Leadership. \u201cThe opportunity to vet and pitch your own idea or to join with others working to solve a problem of interest, rapidly provides the participants with so many real-world experiences that are critical to their entrepreneurial journey.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lizzy Kirkton<\/strong> said she learned to keep her product simple and to think on her feet. A double major in business administration and organizational leadership, she hopes to work in the field of environmental sustainability. She\u2019s also interested in working in a team-oriented environment and facilitating ethical decision-making in the business field.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite not usually being the person who spoke up and steered conversations, Kirkton ended up being the person in her group who led discussion. She came away with a lot more confidence in her ability to communicate clearly and confidently. \u201cBy the end of the weekend, I was a lot more comfortable networking and having conversations with people I didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the event, individuals participated in a one-minute pitch and then formed teams around their favorite ideas. They have the weekend to create a business, which they then pitch on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hebron Mekuria<\/strong>, an engineering major, was participating with a pitch contest win already. <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2022\/sophomore-wins-sullivan-foundations-pitch-contest\/\">She won The Sullivan Foundation\u2019s pitch contest <\/a>in March.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Techstars experience helped uncover the importance of team dynamics, she said. \u201cIt was evident this could make or break our idea\u2026I was better able to understand how to add value to a team and identify if a teammate added value to me and my work.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also enjoyed meeting CEOs, managers, investors, entrepreneurs and others who were eager to \u201cconnect with young minds set on solving a problem.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe event provided a fantastic opportunity to strengthen collaboration skills with team-members, identify my personal strengths, and develop critical-thinking skills throughout the weekend,\u201d said <strong>Aaron Shenk<\/strong>, a business administration major.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Projects pitched to the judges Sunday included a waste management program and custom guitars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prizes for the winning team include legal packages, social media recognition, and community support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three Eastern Mennonite University business students participated in TechStars Start-Up Weekend in early April at James Madison University. TechStars events are hosted around the United States and around the world. <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2022\/techstars-start-up-weekend-builds-confidence-in-emu-entrepreneurs\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about TechStars Start-up Weekend builds confidence in EMU entrepreneurs<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5591,17562,17364,14139],"tags":[],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-51999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-leadership","category-digest","category-engineering","category-student-profiles"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TechStars Start-up Weekend builds confidence in EMU entrepreneurs - 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\/techstars-start-up-weekend-builds-confidence-in-emu-entrepreneurs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TechStars Start-up Weekend builds confidence in EMU entrepreneurs - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Three Eastern Mennonite University business students participated in TechStars Start-Up Weekend in early April at James Madison University. TechStars events are hosted around the United States and around the world.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2022\/techstars-start-up-weekend-builds-confidence-in-emu-entrepreneurs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-10T13:42:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-11T16:58:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/04\/28154422\/20220426-Techstars-1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2022\/techstars-start-up-weekend-builds-confidence-in-emu-entrepreneurs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2022\/techstars-start-up-weekend-builds-confidence-in-emu-entrepreneurs\/\",\"name\":\"TechStars Start-up Weekend builds confidence in EMU entrepreneurs - 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