Seventh Class of Sheetz Fellows Inducted
The seventh class of Sheetz Fellows was inducted during a formal ceremony at the Sheetz Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence Saturday, February 17, 2018. A competitive academic program, the Sheetz Fellows Program mission is to create unique opportunities that ignite and inspire the entrepreneurial mindset of students at Penn State Altoona by fostering critical thinking, ingenuity, leadership, and problem solving skills.
The 16 inductees celebrated alongside family and friends; Penn State Altoona faculty and staff; previously inducted Sheetz Fellows; Sheetz Fellows alumni; and founding benefactors of the Sheetz Fellows Program, Steve and Nancy Sheetz.
The Sheetz Fellows Program was established in 2009 as part of a historic gift to Penn State Altoona by Steve and Nancy Sheetz and has proven to be a visionary initiative that prepares students for professional, educational, personal, and social success. For more on the 2018 Induction, please visit http://altoona.psu.edu/story/9911/2018/02/26/penn-state-altoona-inducts-seventh-class-sheetz-fellows
Ben Franklin Bootcamp
The inaugural Ben Franklin TechCelerator@Altoona Bootcamp is underway, maxing out the number of companies accepted into this hands-on program at six. The emerging tech-entrepreneurs from the area started the free eight-week program January 23 and meet every Tuesday with mentors from Ben Franklin’s Transformation Business Services Network and the area’s local economic development and startup experts. They meet in Catalyst Space, 1331 12th Avenue in Altoona.
TechCelerator Director Bob Dornich says the six companies are highly motivated and focused as they move through the customer discovery process, business and revenue models, legal issues to name a few of the topics and they are finetuning their company structure. He said several have already formed LLC’s and one is generating revenue already.
The culmination will be a pitch contest to a panel of judges to win $10,000 for their business. The public is invited to the pitch contest on Tuesday, March 13, 2018 from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. in Catalyst Space. RSVP is required by March 7 as space is limited, to mac80@psu.edu.
Spotlight on Penn State Enactus
Penn State Altoona Enactus follows their mantra; Eat, Sleep, Change the World, Repeat. They live this mantra out through their three projects; Enactus Energy, Project International Impact, and Sustainability Management. Penn State Altoona Enactus will be presenting these projects at Regional Competition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 19-20 and at National Competition in Kansas City, Missouri on May 20-22.
Enactus Energy does direct, business light audits with local and corporate businesses. They are currently working with Mamie’s Café, Hampton Inn, Dentistry Dr. Oravec, and Sheetz Distribution Center. Mamie’s Café has a realized savings in electricity of almost 16,000 kilowatt hours a year, a saving of over $2,100 a year; that’s almost a 10 percent reduction in her total electric usage. Dr. Oravec benefits from the switch through quality of light for her practice and the cost savings.
Project International Impact (PI2) has been working with the founders of Love In Action International Ministries in Bolivia to assist an orphanage. Six Penn State Altoona students and two advisors are traveling to Bolivia over spring break. They will be investigating whether a coffee shop will be sustainable, help the orphanage produce their own source of fruits and vegetables, and understand and appreciate Bolivia’s environment and culture.
Sustainability Management is in its initial stage with its three projects underneath the sustainability umbrella; Jazzed About Java, Waste Not Want Not, and Table to Farm.
Jazzed About Jazz works with Penn State Altoona Cafés and a few local coffee shops for coffee ground collection. They are collecting coffee grounds to keep them out of landfills and recycling them into products such as candles, fire starters, and garbage disposal blaze cleaners. They collect around 2,000 pounds of coffee grounds per month; estimating 24,000 pounds per year with a reduction of around 76.3 tons of CO2 emissions.
Pictured above: 1,000 pounds of coffee grounds
Additionally, to remove waste from the landfill, Waste Not Want Not grasped an opportunity to remove milk waste from landfills. Waste Not Want Not realized that grocery stores throw away their milk three days before its expiration date. They discovered that milk can be frozen and stay fresh for up to two months. Their goal is to facilitate the milk to food banks to provide healthier and highly perishable items. This project also keeps unnecessary food out of the landfills. Around160 gallons of milk are dumped per week at grocery stores to make room for new products. By facilitating milk to food banks, it will provide healthier products for families at food banks and remove the waste from the landfills.
Not all food waste is edible, so Table to Farm takes cooked food that can’t be donated or re-purposed from restaurants and composts it. The Intermunicipal Relations Committee, IRC, asked for assistance in their composting program. Table to Farm helps participants with the reduction of their waste reducing their dumpster size and frequency of pick-ups. Participants with eight-cubic-yard dumpster have an average monthly service cost of $240 per month; by reducing to a four-cubic-yard dumpster, their hauling needs are reduced to $155 per month. A saving of over $1,000 a year in waste disposal costs. Through composting these materials, the compost facility will be able to speed up their composting process.
Penn State Altoona Enactus has partnered with others to change the world this year in the fields of energy, sustainability management, and international business planning. It doesn’t matter where we are, or what language we’re speaking, our mantra is the same; Eat, Sleep, Change the World, Repeat.
Fast Track to Financing a New Business
Lindsey Riley, Personal Banker, Reliance Bank presented the Small Business Express (SBX) Lending Program on February 27, 2018 at the Altoona LaunchBox.
Participants learned about the fast track to small business loans with Small Business Express (SBX) loans, the lending process that helps your small business receive loans quicker, easier, and more efficiently.
Making Connections
A major component of the Sheetz Fellows Program is learning to network and make connections. The more you practice, the more comfortable you become in those situations.
The Young Professionals of Blair County and the Sheetz Fellows set up an evening program to interact with each other at the Altoona LaunchBox. The event was deemed a huge success by all who attended, with talk of more events in the future.
Entrepreneur-In-Residence
Attorney Ben Yeager
Attorney at Law, LLC, d/b/a Yeager & Eberhardt, Altoona
J. Benjamin Yeager’s firm specializes in estate and business succession planning, wills and trusts, business and corporate matters, estate administration, and real estate transactions.
Brenda Montrella Branch
Owner, Everything Natural
In addition to the Everything Natural store in Altoona, Ms. Montrella owns the Natural Pharma in Tuscaloosa, AL. Recognized as a natural health authority, she is a popular international speaker and offers lectures for universities, special interest groups and corporations.
Penn State Altoona students have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with successful business leaders and entrepreneurs several times each semester. The EIR program provides students with opportunities to expand their network and get immediate feedback on their ventures or entrepreneurial career goals and aspirations.
Zoom Sessions with Sheetz Fellow Alumni
Technology brought two Sheetz Fellow alums into the Team Meetings this semester, so current Sheetz Fellows could hear about their careers, how the Sheetz Fellows Program helped them get where they are, and advice on taking advantage of every opportunity the program offers.
Matt Wagner graduated in 2014 and is currently a Mid-Atlantic Account Executive with KeepTruckin in Nashville, TN.
Jimmy Coonan graduated in 2013 and is a Research Content Specialist at Gartner, in Florida.