UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

04-26-2021

Pilot Venture Challenge 2021 Results

The Franz Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation once again hosted its annual venture pitch competition, Pilot Venture Challenge, as a live, virtual event due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. However, that didn’t seem to deter students from developing invention and venture ideas to pitch. This year there was a record number of sixteen entries in the finals.

The Invention Track, which highlights creativity, invention and innovation, was held on Saturday, April 17th. The Social Track, which encourages students to use entrepreneurial and business principles to organize, create and manage a sustainable enterprise that has a positive social impact, and the For-Profit Track were held on Saturday, April 24th.

Students, judges and guests joined online to hear and see 10-minute presentations by a total of 16 entrants. All entries were judged by expert panels of alumni and community business leaders. The winners are:

Invention

1st Place: Widget Tools, an essential multi-tool for board sport enthusiasts by Ben Messerly ’21 and Nick Robinson ’21.

2nd Place: rePLA, a bio-degradable filament for 3D printers by Melissa Tran ’23, Evangeline Muyano ’21, Rachel Hu ’21, Addie Zhao ’21, and Brytney Young ’22.

3rd Place: LuxShowers, an eco-friendly shower head to control water and energy consumption by Jessica Yoshioka ‘23.

The 1st and 2nd Place winners move on to represent UP at the statewide InventOR Semi-Final Competition April 23-25 and hopefully the Finals on June 24-25.

Social Venture

1st Place: RedemptionTech, a subsidized tech-rental service that provides ex-convicts access to technology to help connect them to jobs and resources as they re-enter society, by Olivia Brimhall ‘21, Justine Phan ‘21, Batara Siahaan ’22 and Georgia Sutjiadi ’22.

2nd Place: Scion Enterprise, a website to help educate and inform young people on financial and investing concepts by Trenton Sewell ’22 and Kenny Hiraoka ’21.

3rd Place: PolitiSquare, an online social platform for people to respectfully engage in civil discourse by Kevin Cochran ‘22.

For-Profit Venture

1st Place: Willamette Wick, an Oregon-based, small business that produces hand-poured, soy-wax, scented candles by Chelsea Power ’22 and Nicole Shea ‘22

2nd Place: Vino de Alma, an interactive, social wine making experience for individuals, small groups and special occasions by Jarrett Tapella ’21, Quinn Anderson ’21, Lisa Brown ’21 and Riley Farrell ’22.

3rd Place: Benson’s Lifestyle, a website/social media/app-based program to help people obtain their goals of a healthy mind and body by Kayla Benson ’21 and Daniel Rodriguez-Pena ‘22

For more information contact the Franz Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation at franzcenter@up.edu.

Laura McLary: Thank You and Congratulations!

After 22 years of service at University of Portland, interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences Laura McLary has accepted the position of Nora Kizer Bell Provost at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, effective July 1. According to Herbert Medina, provost, “This announcement is both joyful and somewhat unhappy for all of us at UP, especially those who have had the privilege of working with Laurie throughout the years. While we are saddened by her departure, we offer her our heartfelt congratulations as she takes on this new and exciting leadership position.”
A prolific scholar of Austrian literature and culture and celebrated professor of German, Laurie has achieved many successes at UP. She established the German studies program; mentored dozens of students as they prepared Fulbright dossiers; was recognized in 2015 as Oregon Professor of the Year by the national Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; engaged in numerous service roles including the Collaborative for International Studies & Global Outreach (CISGO) and the Strategic Planning Committee; served as academic associate dean; and most recently served as interim dean of CAS. 
Medina will appoint a new interim dean for CAS and, as planned, we will continue a national search for a permanent dean in the fall.

UP Branded Virtual Backgrounds: Add Some Zip to Your Zoom

UP branded virtual backgrounds are available for download in ShareUP, according to Chris Long, marketing and communications. The virtual backgrounds create an appealing, brand-focused backdrop that you may use in virtual meetings on Zoom (or for other virtual platforms). To navigate to the virtual background files please visit ShareUP using this link, then select “ShareUP Login.” On the home page, select “Brand” then “Virtual Backgrounds.”

Directions on downloading the files and enabling the assets in Zoom are available on the virtual backgrounds page in ShareUP. Please reach out to Long (longc@up.edu) with any questions or technical issues.

 

Moment of Beauty with The Saint John’s Bible: Elisha and the Six Miracles

This week, spend 2 minutes beholding Elisha and the Six Miracles (story in 2 Kings 4-6). Donald Jackson and Aidan Hart’s lustrous illumination. Music is provided by Tyler Lawrence ’24 and Susan McDaniel, Department of Music. These weekly moments of beauty provide an oasis in which you need only breathe, behold and BE.

2021 Public Research Fellows Showcase, April 29

The Public Research Fellows will host a showcase of the program’s 20-21 work, and all members of the UP community and the general public are invited to attend. The interactive showcase will happen at this Zoom link on Thursday, April 29 at 7 p.m. Student and faculty fellows will unveil their projects and be on hand to guide attendees through a variety of lenses for thinking about our theme, Displacement and Justice. From a podcast that explores displacement through the experience of first-generation students, to an interactive map that uses Portland African American literature to tell local stories of displacement, to a virtual performance that thinks through displacement with music—the PRF teams have created a range of exciting projects that use innovative, accessible forms to expand our ideas of what research can look like. Join us for this interactive event to get inspired about the possibilities in your own work and learn more about how displacement manifests in local contexts and beyond.

For more information, please go to the Public Research Fellows site.

Join OIEDI for their Summer 2021 Community Conversation Series

Thank you to all who joined us for Part 1 of our Summer 21 Community Conversations. We are looking forward to Part 2: the Story Circle. No preparation or RSVP is necessary, simply email oiedi@up.edu or visit the this page in Pilots UP for the Zoom link to access the June 24 11:30 a.m.- 1 p.m. conversation where we will hear from each other about “a time someone unexpected influenced you”.

A little information about Story Circles:

  • Foundation of Story Circles: We are all interconnected through human rights. Each person has inherent dignity and worth.<RESPECT AND OPENNESS>
  • In addition to the two presuppositions, it is important to remember that: a) Every person has personal experience that can be shared . b) We all have something to learn from others . c) Listening for understanding is transformational
  • Goal: Community development – diverse community citizens (of different ages, gender, religions, socio-economic backgrounds, etc.) come together to share their stories so as to create bonds and build relationships across generations, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds.

We hope you will join us and invite others from our UP community to join. We are looking forward to this opportunity to learn from and about each other!

Please email questions, suggestions, or other feedback to oiedi@up.edu.

Celebrating QTBIPOC (LGBTQIA and/or BIPOC) Seniors, May 5: Sign Up Now!

Diversity and inclusion programs (DIP) would appreciate your support as we celebrate seniors who identify as QTBIPOC (LGBTQIA+ and/or BIPOC) on Wednesday, May 5, from 6:00 to 7 p.m.

Soon it will be possible to RSVP on Engage, and in the meantime please help us spread the word by sharing the form below with classes and student networks. We are using this form so we can feature seniors’ accomplishments and time at UP. We’re gathering graduating students, as well as staff and faculty to celebrate our accomplishments over our time at UP. The deadline to submit responses is Monday, April 19.

Here is the link to the form: QTBIPOC Graduation Celebration.

We recognize that there may be some concerns as to why DIP is not hosting individualized graduation ceremonies for different identities on our campus. We know that QTBIPOC experiences are not the same for everyone, and while we one day hope to host graduation celebrations for all affinity groups, we do want to highlight the intersectionality of identities on our campus. We also want to recognize the collective power many graduating seniors and other students and supporters used to fight for change amidst the Black Lives Matter movement over this past year. We also recognize that some communities have larger numbers than others, and some more individualized celebrations would be very small. The last issue is DIP’s capacity and numbers; we simply do not have the numbers in our staff to host multiple graduation ceremonies. However, we hope to one day celebrate everyone’s accomplishments with separate ceremonies.

For more information reach out to Rebecca Seibert at seibert@up.edu or Yuri at hernandy@up.edu.