Reflection Essay
Signature Work
Maxine E Denis
University of St. Thomas
ENTR 450 Entrepreneurship Management and Strategy
Jack Dempsey
13DEC23
Signature Works
I have spent a total of five semesters at the University of St. Thomas, it is the third higher education institution I have attended. I came to St. Thomas knowing that I wanted to major in entrepreneurship, my experience in technical and community schools did not quite prepare me for the level of professors and peers I was going to encounter. In my orientation there was a lot of conversation about doing things for the “common good” and I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, and to be completely honest I assumed it was something the orientation leader said and then I would never hear again. After five semesters I can see that I was entirely wrong about that assumption. I felt the sentiment of the Common Good throughout every class I took at St. Thomas, the experiences that shine through are completing my Business 200 class, completing my capstone project in ENTR 450 and completing my final project in JPST 280.
Business 200
Business 200 is required for every business major at St. Thomas, and its most prominent requirement is that of 40 volunteer hours for a local nonprofit. This experience pushes students to go out into the community and find ways to help. There is a list of nonprofits that students can choose from that other students have worked with in the past that understand what is required. During the onboarding process for the class all the Business 200 students got together and spoke about what would be expected of us. Something that struck me during this conversation was Professor Reiters urging that we go into these non profits and really ask them what they need and do that. Rather than going into these nonprofits and trying to make big systematic changes or acting more like a consultant, Professor Reiter emphasized the importance of giving these nonprofits what they need, not what we want to give them.
In addition to that first seminar we also met in smaller groups every week throughout the semester. During this time, we would talk about our different options for nonprofits, the different types of work we were doing and were taught about different aspects of nonprofits. One video that really stuck out to me was a TED Talk given by Don Pallotta where Don talks about the double standard that exists for nonprofits and how important they are in society. Typically, the first thing any student is taught about business is that businesses exist to serve customers and to make money by serving their customers, it’s the simplest and arguably the best definition of business there is. It paints a picture that as long as a business is serving a need, it can monetize that service and therefore thrive. The question that gets answered by the nonprofit sector is: what happens when the customers you’re serving can’t pay? This video argues that nonprofits are the only answer to this question, but they are treated unfairly by the world. It is a common misnomer that in order to do good, nonprofits must be lean and agile in order to accomplish what they want. While these days being lean is almost always good, nonprofits get punished if people think the CEO is being paid too much, or that their overhead is too high, and fail to really recognize what that nonprofit is accomplishing. I think I go back to this video so much because I used to be one of those people! I absolutely thought these massive nonprofits could be doing more good with less overhead, not realizing that the size of the overhead and dollars to attract such a CEO are exactly the things that enable them to have that size of an impact. Overall, my experience in Business 200 really taught me two things: Yes, nonprofits are necessary and important and judge the size of that nonprofits' impact, not the size of their overhead.
In addition to classroom work and discussions,, I decided to continue working on my own nonprofit. I had been working on Competitions for A Cause for about six months before starting this class, and decided while I had the resources being a student gave me I should keep working on it. The goal of Competitions for A Cause is to help gym members help each other. We do this by hosting competitions in a gym where all of the proceeds from that competition go directly to a member in need. This helps the gym owner by allowing them to help a member in their community without cutting into their bottom line, it helps other members give to a member in need while still getting something out of it, and it ultimately helps the member in need monetarily and also gives them a sense of community. During this course, I had a handful of goals in mind. I wanted to become officially structured as a 501(c)(3) and to do that I needed two more board members, and articles of incorporation. Through this process, I was able to meet with LegalCorps and learn a lot about the different types of nonprofits and how they are formed, network with gym owners and people in the community and ultimately get my articles of incorporation written and get two people to agree to be board members.
ENTR 450
Entrepreneurship 450 was the class that tied everything together for me, it covered ideating, customer interviews, building a prototype and pitching to investors. This class is run more like a mini accelerator than a typical class. In the very beginning we spent the better part of a few class periods ideating, just throwing out different ideas we had and documenting them on a spreadsheet. Eventually, we narrowed those down to one idea per person, and each person pitched to a panel of investors who gave us feedback on each idea and narrowed it down to their four favorites. After giving our team preferences, we were split into teams and given the rest of the semester to make our idea come to life.
The three best parts of this class were giving other teams feedback, being held accountable as if we were in an accelerator and getting to hear from some excellent guest speakers. Every week we reported everything we did last week and set goals for the next week and were able to ask questions to the class as a whole or get feedback on changes we were considering making. Getting and giving feedback every week was an extremely enjoyable experience for me, I got to have input on other people's ideas and be a sounding board for them, and getting to watch those teams change and grow was a highlight of the semester. We also got the chance to get feedback and implement it as quickly as the next week. Next, we were held accountable to the goals we set for ourselves. Being held accountable is an odd thing, because most people know they need it, but sometimes you want someone to take it easy on you and say it’s okay that you didn’t accomplish your goal. Professor Dempsey and the rest of the class did not take that stance, which can be a little uncomfortable, but when other people are holding you accountable, it becomes much easier to do things you set out to do, even when you don’t want to. In my opinion, the most valuable thing an entrepreneur can have is a person or group of people that knows how to hold them accountable. Lastly, we were able to hear from some incredible local entrepreneurs! I try not to pick favorites, but the most impactful one for me, was Elizabeth Orme from Creatively Focused. Elizabeth laid out a really clear path for how she went from working in a school district to founding Creatively Focused and how she went from a consultant to hiring a team and then through navigating COVID. Additionally, something I personally resonated with was how she experienced a problem and then built a solution for that problem. While in my write up I wrote that I would not invest in her, after hearing her speak to our class I would have changed my mind. Hearing how passionate she was about solving the problem of burnout for teachers who were teaching special needs students was deeply inspiring and truly showed me that I can solve a problem I have experienced in a market that might not be considered massive and still be successful.
The paramount project of this class as I have discussed was a final pitch and prototype of our product. Our team, AdGamz, focused on making advertisements less invasive and more engaging for users. This idea was formed by a teammate and his friend who had already been working on it, it started as an idea where advertisers would pay users in credit to their favorite streaming service in return for playing branded games. After having some challenges communicating this idea and finding product market fit we pivoted to be more focused on local businesses and then grow from there. Working on this project taught me how to work in a team, how to work on an idea that wasn’t my own and how to shift our focus to a smaller but more attainable vision. Our team worked exceptionally well together, Max Karas acting as our visionary, Michael acting as our connector and Katie acting as our organizer, and myself acting as our ideator. All of us playing a part made it much easier to work on a team and work on an idea that wasn’t my own. Working on AdGamz rather than my own project actually made it a lot easier to be part of a team and offer objective feedback and ideas. In terms of shifting our focus we received a lot of excellent feedback from pitch panels, peers and mentors that brought on a shift from large advertisers and streaming services to local restaurants. It was a difficult conversation to have, but we were able to view it as a starting point, not a permanent shift. One piece of excellent advice we got was a panelist asking “Does the world need a service that allows college kids to get free beer?”. Which is a really great question and something we didn’t really consider in our shift. This question will guide future projects for me and considering “Does the world really need this?” is a great starting point for deciding if I should move forward with an idea or project. Working on AdGamz with this team is something I will consistently reflect positively on as I grow.
JPST 280
Active Nonviolence is a class I took because, well, it covered two core areas that I needed to graduate. The class was full but I showed up on the first day and weaseled my way in. I hadn’t really read the course description and wasn’t really sure I would find a Justice & Peace Studies class to be all that engaging, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I, as most people do, had a preconceived notion that nonviolent protests were relatively useless and if you wanted to get something done you had to be disruptive. Throughout the class we studied many different movements, some violent and some not and were able to compare their impact, we looked at old movements to look at how long lasting their impact had been. This class consisted of exploring different movements and then narrowed in to one movement for our final paper.
The in-class portion of this class was largely focused on reading or watching something and then discussing it. It didn’t take long for me to see that I was dead wrong in my thinking that nonviolence was ineffective. One really excellent thing about this class was that in the first class period we discussed as a group what would make this class the most effective and agreed to some common ground rules. Establishing this really early on made it a much better experience to be in class and made everyone feel safe to share their thoughts and opinions surrounding relatively sensitive subjects. A specific movement we talked about in class that I resonated with was the Occupy Wallstreet movement, I was a freshman in high school when it was happening and basically just regurgitated my parents' view on the topic. Revisiting that topic through the lens of this class and a few years removed from my small hometown in WI was extraordinarily eye-opening for me, and really showed me how beneficial it is to look at events like Occupy through different points of view and hear other people's opinions on them. Additionally, we got to look at how systematic these movements can be with tools like Pillars of Support and SWOT analyses, which would typically be used in business. Understanding all the organizations that go into these nonviolent movements showed me exactly how these movements get traction and accomplish their goals.
I picked a local movement and one I knew nothing about for my final paper in this class, the American Indian Movement. I picked this movement precisely because I knew nothing about it and thought it was fascinating to see how it shaped the American Indian culture in Minneapolis. AIM also had an interesting mixture of being nonviolent but also having some violent outbursts, so it was very clear how effective the different approaches were or were not. Learning about AIMs roots in Minneapolis and how they were able to offer each other undying support and fight for their way of life after being wronged was astounding. Their ability to stay nonviolent even when they were struggling to be heard is so impressive and what they were able to get done, even when there is still more work to do, is admirable. Studying this particular topic gave me an appreciation for going high when others go low.
Conclusion
I’ve spent five semesters at St. Thomas, and for a lot of that time I underestimated the university's commitment to the Common Good and was proven wrong at every turn. I want to be clear that I’m proud to be wrong about this. I’m proud to have gone to a University that prioritizes teaching students how to be responsible and conscious leaders, and has really weaved in that teaching to every class. The mission and values are not just lip service or good advertisement, they really are a way of life and something that is echoed in everything St. Thomas does. St. Thomas has taught me how to open my mind and think critically about how to solve big problems and that is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life.