Royal Purple

Issue date: 5/7/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Alison Wisneski Sophomore Jordan Leahy and junior Kyle Ballweg exhibit inventions for visitors.

Sophomore Jordan Leahy was awarded the top prize of $5,000 with his invention of the Rendlex Tool, a tool with special features designed to aid in window washing during the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization's 2nd Annual Warhawk Business Plan Contest Thursday evening in the Hamilton Center.

The event served as a way for UW-Whitewater students to showcase their ideas for potential businesses or help an existing business grow.

The competition allowed students to take their first steps toward turning an idea into a profitable business through putting together a business plan and presenting it before a panel of judges. The judges consisted of UW-Whitewater faculty, alumni and business leaders.

The competition began with over 30 teams which were narrowed down to 10 and then the final five presented during the event.

Leahy was excited about the win and encouraged others to participate in CEO's events.

"It is a great opportunity," Leahy said. "I wish other people put more effort into entrepreneurship because there's a lot of support out here."

The second-place winner of $2,000 was junior Dominic Caminata with his family-owned business Dominic's Dismantling and Construction, specializing in residential and commercial dismantling. Caminata who is also the treasurer for Latinos Unidos insists it took plenty of hard work to be apart of the competition.

"It took hours, lots of hours," Caminata said. "There were many sleepless nights, but it was all worth it to be able to make it this far."

The third-place winners of $1,000 were seniors Neil Henderson, Sara Shepard, Seth Rickerman and Logan Wickel with their business, Sanitoy. The group, who graduate in May, invented a toy chest with the ability to sanitize using ultra-violet lighting.

"We saw there was an opening in the market," Henderson said. "There are no other products out there like ours."

Other teams in the competition included Matt Millican with One Organizer, an online service for students and Luke Mullins, Jesse Kruit and Adam Freis with Whey Maker, a food supplement manufacturer.

Awards were also given to the judges as thanks for their participation.

Also in attendance was the Dean of the College of Business and Economics Chris Clements who announced with professor and CEO advisor Jimmy Peltier, due to the growing interest in entrepreneurship, it has been proposed to become a major at UW-Whitewater.

"The proposal has gone forward," said Peltier. "We're midway there, but hopefully students will be able to major in entrepreneurship beginning in fall 2009."

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