A few weeks ago, Wheaton’s newest club was approved by the Student Government Association. Entrepreneurship Club, a club aimed at sparking innovation and discussion about social entrepreneurship on campus, hopes that its new presence can help fill a gap its president Michael Sadowsky ‘18 believes to currently be present on campus.
Sadowsky first conceived the idea for this club his freshman year, noticing a lack of “Start-Up Culture” at Wheaton. “Last year, when I was a freshman, I had so many awesome ideas for business ventures, but I had nowhere to go with these ideas,” says Sadowsky. Sadowsky and his vice-president, OmarAl-mujahed ‘18, have already pursued entrepreneurial ventures before the formation of this club. Last summer, the two worked on the creation of their own app called EZBook and even formed their own LLC. “We fought every day and gained more and more team members, including Bailey Robinson ‘18, Khaled Al-sharafaddin ‘16 and Caleb Wastler ‘17,” says Sadowsky. Some of these students now help to make up the executive board of the newly formed club.
The group now hopes to use their current experience to benefit Entrepreneurship Club as well as expand on this experience. Sadowsky says that EZBook, their previous entrepreneurial project, took about six months to get started. Sadowsky says he formed the club in the hopes of making things easier for future Wheaton students who want to pursue their business interests. He believes that if they had some form of help from those with more experience in entrepreneurship, their project would have taken two months at most. “This is in essence why I started this club. I want to make sure we provide the tools for students to create, inspire and innovate,” says Sadowsky.
The Entrepreneurship Club executive board along with the help of their faculty advisor, Nancy Scott, hopes to hold several events this coming semester at Wheaton. Some ideas for events include an Alumni CEO speaker series and a Wheaton Business Pitch competition similar to the Mass Challenge competition held last semester at Wheaton. “We will hold an open idea “think tank” where we brainstorm ideas and then pick teams based off of interest from club members and attack these problems,” says Sadowsky. Sadowsky says that the group also wants to work closely with the new start-up space being created at the garden level of the Doll’s House.
This new group will no doubt fill a hole that is currently present on the Wheaton College campus. Those who wish to gain knowledge about starting companies and gaining practical experience in the business world will now have a club that meets their interests. Sadowsky has high hopes for the effect it will have on students. “This club is going to make a big impact on Wheaton. It is going to be exciting to see how students social entrepreneurship projects affect the campus community,” stated Sadowsky.