|
October 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Brenda Wishart, Co-Director
Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation Entrepreneurship Initiative
413.565.1229
bwishart@baypath.edu
Creation of the Entrepreneurship Initiative - October 2003
Harold Grinspoon is a successful entrepreneur who, over forty-five years ago, founded a real estate company known as Aspen Square Management. This West Springfield-based company now owns and operates apartment communities in over 25 states nationwide. Inspired by his own experience, Mr. Grinspoon has created the Entrepreneurship Initiatives as a segment of The Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation, to encourage young people to innovate and to turn their innovation and creativity into businesses that will ultimately create economic opportunity and growth in the Pioneer Valley.
This Initiative seeks to foster an educational environment that informs, supports, and inspires student entrepreneurs by enrolling the aid of professors and instructors from the area colleges with a unique interest in entrepreneurship to serve as advisors to students with entrepreneurial interests.
Participating schools in the Pioneer Valley include:
- University of Massachusetts
- Hampshire College
- Springfield Technical Community College
- Springfield College
- Mount Holyoke
- Smith College
- Bay Path College
- Western New England College
- Westfield State College
- American International College
- Elms College
- Holyoke Community College
The Foundation has engaged Dr. Linda Peters to serve as the Program Director for the Initiative. Dr. Peters will act as a liaison between the Foundation and the participating colleges, uniting them for the purpose of promoting entrepreneurship. In addition, the Foundation has assembled an Advisory Committee of area entrepreneurs and academics to provide further guidance and consultation to the Initiative. Committee members include Dr. Thomas O’Brien, Dean of the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Dr. James M. Theroux, Flavin Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Dianne Fuller Doherty, the Regional Director of the Western Massachusetts Regional Office of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network, and Jeremy Pava, a long-standing Junior Partner and Treasurer of Aspen Square Management.
The Foundation believes that public recognition must be part and parcel to the award program in order to encourage other students to strive toward entrepreneurial achievement. To accomplish this, the first annual awards banquet will be held on April 29, 2004 at The Log Cabin in order to recognize students who have received monetary awards during the 2003-2004 academic year. Jeff Taylor, Founder and CEO of Monster.com will be the keynote speaker.
In conjunction with this awards banquet, several community banks will be sponsoring an ‘Elevator Pitch Competition’. A student representative from each school will compete for $7000 in monetary awards. Each student will be allotted ninety seconds to ‘pitch’ a business concept to a panel of judges consisting of Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents from the community banks. The top three contestants will be awarded $3000, $2000, and $1000 respectively, with all remaining participants receiving $100 each.
The celebration will begin at 5:30 on April 29th. Students who have received monetary awards during the current academic year will be displaying information regarding their business or innovation during the reception hour. The Elevator Pitch Competition will be held from 6:30 to 7:00 pm followed by dinner, the keynote speaker and the awards program. |
