The Entrepreneurship Club includes, from left, Zhongmei (Mei) Chen, events coordinator; Emiola Banwo, vice president; Melissa Palmer, E-Club advisor and program manager for the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and Udai Pabla, finance coordinator.
Through the Entrepreneurship Club, a student organization in the Naveen Jindal School of Management, like-minded students are connected with each other and with the Dallas startup scene.
The E-Club’s mission makes it popular with students across disciplines. It appeals to a diverse group of students such as Emiola Banwo, a computer engineering junior. He said E-Club members apply their creativity and ingenuity on a daily basis.
“As students, we’re leveraging limited resources,” said Banwo, E-Club vice president. “That’s entrepreneurial in my mind.”
Banwo, whose entrepreneurial experience includes launching a crowdsourcing platform for nonprofits, is working to strengthen the E-Club’s presence across campus and connect students who are entrepreneurial-minded to Dallas’ entrepreneurial ecosystem.
According to Melissa Palmer, E-Club advisor and program manager for the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Jindal School and E-Club are also preparing students to be successful professionals.
Forward Thinking in a Fast World: 2014 Scholarship Breakfast
Speaker: Robert Safian, editor and managing director of Fast Company
Topic: “Lessons from the World’s Most Innovative Companies”
When: 7:30-9:30 a.m. Wednesday
Where: The Westin Galleria Dallas
Individual tickets are $50. Tickets and sponsorship opportunities available online.
“JSOM is leading the way on this,” she said. “We deal with innovation, creativity, problem-solving, engaging with other disciplines. These are job-readiness skills.”
Banwo’s entrepreneurial network extends beyond the E-Club. He is involved with the Dallas Entrepreneur Center. In his role as a DEC ambassador, he has access to some of the best entrepreneurial minds in Dallas.
“The ambassadors are a group of people from the community who are giving their time to get more connected and help grow the startup community,” said Will Akins, community manager with the DEC. “The ambassadors have been broken into groups focusing on solutions to different problems in the startup community. Emiola’s group is working on finding 10,000 startup businesses that can benefit from the resources in the startup community.”
At DEC’s weekly event called 1 Million Cups, Banwo and Palmer presented the hopes and aspirations of E-Club. They gave a six-minute presentation about E-Club to other entrepreneurs who then posed questions and offered their advice. Banwo asked them how to invigorate E-Club’s student membership. The response was favorable.
“I got lots of business cards. We have many DEC members who want to speak at UT Dallas,” Banwo said. “Dallas is a great place to be an entrepreneur.”
E-Club members will soon have an opportunity to network when they help with registration and hospitality at the 2014 Scholarship Breakfast. The keynote speaker will be Robert Safian, editor and managing director of Fast Company. After he presents “Lessons of the World’s Most Innovative Companies,” Safian will meet with E-Club members at a private event.
This story was reported and written by freelance contributor Jeanne Spreier.