{"id":8314,"date":"2019-08-13T20:30:34","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T00:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2019\/08\/23\/innovation-hour-invites-students-to-pitch-their-business-ideas\/"},"modified":"2022-11-06T18:34:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-06T23:34:55","slug":"innovation-hour-invites-students-to-pitch-their-business-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/innovation-hour-invites-students-to-pitch-their-business-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovation Hour invites students to pitch their business ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Literacy Corner<\/a>, a four-week tutoring program led by graduate-level, certified teachers in Furman\u2019s Master of Arts in Education program, has been sending kids home with stronger reading and writing skills for 10 years. When the 2019 edition wrapped up on July 3, however, there was something else in the students\u2019 backpacks, compliments of the first annual Innovation Hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the support of the OLLI community and Furman, we were able to do even more this year by purchasing books that children could keep and read over the summer,\u201d said Erikah Haavie, Education Department and Literacy Corner program assistant.<\/p>\n

The Literacy Corner was awarded a $1,500 grant for being voted overall winner at Innovation Hour, an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute<\/a> (OLLI) course organized by the Furman Creative Collaborative and offered for the first time in the fall of 2018.\u00a0Inspired by the popular show \u201cShark Tank,\u201d students, faculty and staff pitched their innovative ideas to the senior adults \u2013\u00a0many of whom are retired professionals with a lifetime of business experience.<\/p>\n

David Johnson, a member of the OLLI administrative council, worked closely with Payton Isner \u201919 to bring Innovation Hour to life. He\u00a0said The Literacy Corner\u2019s focus on children resonated with group.<\/p>\n

\"OLLI

OLLI administrative council member David Johnson.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt reached out to elementary school kids who really needed help,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThe OLLI members all recognize if you\u2019re a first- or second-grader and you can\u2019t read and you get off to a bad start, your chances of succeeding academically are limited. So that touched everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The student-run Furman Creative Collaborative is also responsible for bringing the annual TEDxFurmanU conference<\/a> to campus. Isner said credit for the Innovation Hour idea goes to the group\u2019s faculty advisor, Associate Professor of Communications Studies Brandon Inabinet. The Collaborative also received guidance \u2013 and some grant award money \u2013 from Anthony Herrera of the Furman Office for Innovation and Entrepreneurship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to kind of branch out a little bit, so Dr. Inabinet came to us with this idea,\u201d Isner, a native of Asheville, North Carolina, said. \u201cOne of the most beneficial things that came out of this that we weren\u2019t expecting is it connected the Furman students and the staff to OLLI. We\u2019re on the same campus and we\u2019re all a part of Furman, but it\u2019s such a different world over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top Student and Top Faculty\/Staff winners were also named. Natalie Tikhonovsy \u201920 was the Top Student for Booth Without Cause, a nonprofit she developed to help refugee women afford entry costs into local craft fairs and farmers markets in order to sell their merchandise. Associate Professor of Health Sciences Meghan Slining was Top Faculty\/Staff for Sweet Tea Cancer Connections, a nonprofit app developed to connect parents of children with pediatric cancer.<\/p>\n

Isner, who graduated in May with a history degree, has handed the Innovation Hour reins over to Amelia Davidson \u201920. Feedback from the OLLI students led to a significant change for the second Innovation Hour, which will begin Sept. 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would like to see more students,\u201d Davidson said, \u201c(so) we decided to take it a step further and make it all students \u2026 I am really thrilled to be a part of this program. Payton Isner has paved a wonderful pathway to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are still spots open for the Innovation Hour pitch competition.\u00a0For\u00a0more information or an application, visit https:\/\/forms.gle\/fun3fjExYAeuQGX76<\/a>\u00a0or contact Davidson at amelia.davidson@furman.edu<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Below is a promotional video for Innovation Hour produced by Matt Weir ’22. Learn more about the Furman Creative Collaborative by visiting its Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n