It was a year of firsts for The Franz Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation’s annual venture pitch competition. This year the event launched with a new name. Formerly known as the $100K Challenge, it has been rebranded as The Pilot Venture Challenge. The other first was a move to holding the competition as a live, virtual event due to the COVID-19 situation.
The competition is separated into three tracks – Invention, Social, and For-Profit. The Invention Track, which highlights creativity, invention, and innovation, was held on Saturday, April 18. 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 25.
Students, judges, and guests joined online to hear and see 10-minute presentations by a total of 14 entrants. All entries were judged by expert panels of alumni and community business leaders. The winners are:
Invention:
- 1st Place: Dose One Pill+, a controlled substance dispensing system to lower therisk of abuse and overdose of highly addictive medications, by Ryan Jarvis ’21
- 2nd Place: Accord On!, an interactive learning device to aid in learning to play the diatonic accordion, by Ernesto Zurita Ruiz ’21
Both winners move on to represent UP at the statewide InventOR Semi-Final Competition in June.
Social Venture:
- 1st Place: Blossom, a curated feminine hygiene subscription service providing woman with products that are sustainable, natural, and ethical, plus a buy-one-give-one model to provide products to women’s shelters in the Portland area, by Kristen Wisneski ’20
- 2nd Place: Race for Change, a running and walking event service hosting fun runs and races to raise money to restore and preserve the environment and combat climate change, by James Parker ’21 and Griffin King ’21
For-Profit Venture:
- 1st Place: Backyard Brews, a craft beer brewery and taproom that offers a unique customer experience through an emphasis on local beers, food, artists, and community, by Cameron Lyons ’21 and Thomas Vogl ’21
- 2nd Place: Force Baseball, a high-tech baseball that provides analytics to maximize training and improve pitcher output, by Henry Cheney ’20, Christian Peters ’20, and Connor Knutson ’20
- 3rd Place: EcoFloss, an antibacterial and sustainable bamboo dental flosser, by Cooper Moore ’21, Travis LaFrance ’20, Kayla Benson ’21, and Trevor Baek ’20
For more information contact the Franz Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation at franzcenter@up.edu.
Please join the Pamplin School of Business and the Franz Center as we say goodbye to Peter Rachor, Director of Entrepreneurship. The gathering will be held on Tuesday, May 14, from 4 to 6 p.m., in Franz Hall room 120. All University employees are invited to extend their good wishes to Peter.
The Franz Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation will present its annual $100K Challenge Venture Competition on Saturday, April 27, on the third floor of Shiley Hall. This competition provides students with the opportunity to receive feedback on their proposed ventures from within the local entrepreneurial community, win cash awards, and move on to the opportunity to acquire seed funding that will help advance an entrepreneurial opportunity to the next stage. All faculty, staff, and students are welcome to attend and watch student presentations.
The Franz Center is providing free leadership training and development during the 2018-19 academic year for faculty and staff who want to learn more about becoming a Leadership Fellow. There have been over 100 faculty and staff from across the university who have been trained as Leadership Fellows and the Franz Center is seeking to include 40 additional faculty and staff who will begin their training next fall. After completing the leadership training, Leadership Fellows serve as leadership instructors and coaches in the Leader Certificate program and earn a stipend of up to $2,500 for their teaching or coaching. We are able to include only exempt (salaried) employees in this program at this time. Please contact Dave Houglum, Franz Center, at 
The Franz Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation will present its annual $100K Challenge Venture Competition on Saturday, April 28, in Shiley Hall room 301. This competition provides students with the opportunity to receive feedback on their proposed ventures from within the local entrepreneurial community, win cash awards, and move on to the opportunity to acquire seed funding that will help advance an entrepreneurial opportunity to the next stage. All faculty, staff, and students are welcome to attend and watch student presentations.
The Franz Center is providing free leadership training and development during the 2018-19 academic year for faculty and staff who want to learn more about becoming a Leadership Fellow, according to Dave Houglum, Franz Center. There have been over 100 faculty and staff from across the university who have been trained as Leadership Fellows and the Franz Center is seeking to include 40 additional faculty and staff who will begin their training next fall. Leadership Fellows serve as leadership instructors and coaches in the Leader Certificate program and earn a stipend of $2,500 for their teaching or coaching. Only exempt (salaried) employees can be accepted at this time. Please contact Houglum at 
The Franz Center is providing free leadership training and development during the 2018-19 academic year for faculty and staff who want to learn more about becoming a Leadership Fellow, according to Dave Houglum, Franz Center. There have been over 100 faculty and staff from across the University who have been trained as Leadership Fellows and the Franz Center is seeking to include 40 additional faculty and staff who will begin their training next fall.
The University of Portland is participating in the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL), an international research study that provides important insights on the leadership development and learning needs of college students. The students’ responses will help faculty, staff, and administrators at the University of Portland measure how we are doing compared to other peer institutions and will allow researchers to better understand how experiences in and outside the classroom impact life and perceptions at college. Students who are selected will receive an email invitation to complete this important online survey on February 6, and the survey will close on February 25.
The Franz Center is providing free leadership training and development during the 2017-18 academic year for faculty and staff who want to learn more about becoming a Dexheimer Leadership Fellow. There are over 70 faculty and staff from across the University who have been trained as Dexheimer Leadership Fellows, and the Franz Center would like to include 40 additional faculty and staff, who will begin their training next fall. Dexheimer Leadership Fellows serve as instructors and coaches in the Leader Certificate Program and earn a stipend of $2,500 for their teaching or coaching. We are able to include only exempt (salaried) employees in the program at this time. To participate, nominate a colleague, or for more information, contact Dave Houglum, director for leadership in the Franz Center, at