Three students from Glendale Community College will receive $2500 each as seed funding for their small business startups!
Glendale Community College (GCC), along with 4 other colleges in the Maricopa Community College District is participating in the Everyday Entrepreneurship Venture Fund (EEVF), a program to seed fund and scale-up community college student business startups.
The three GCC student-entrepreneurs will receive $2,500 each for the launch and expansion of their small business. In addition to the start-up capital, the three student-entrepreneurs will receive ongoing mentoring and advising from the Maricopa Small Business Development Center (SBDC), campus faculty and staff.
The three student-entrepreneurs awarded seed funding are:
Chari Scott is attending Glendale Community College in pursuit of a nursing degree. She is a mother of six and working on opening up a group home facility to aid in the treatment of individuals that live with severe mental illness. Her mission is to open up a Behavioral Health group home that focuses on empowering individuals by building up their strengths as opposed to focusing on deficits or "bad behaviors."
Patrick McDougal is a 23-year-old combat medic veteran who has been growing his virtual reality community, 'The Mortisian Syndicate' (discord.gg/mortisian) where people roleplay, tell stories and enjoy the benefits of a community of like-minded friends. His goal is to grow his now 1500-member community to help thousands of people fight off the wave of growing dismay from COVID-19 and other life adversities by providing for people what they can no longer receive as easily in real life: genuine connection within a virtual family.
Salome Lela plans to major in Business Management in order to manage her own business. She is working on starting "Lela's Lounge", a mixture of a cafe, bar, and lounge where people can relax and also play board and video games. Lela's Lounge will be a safe and healthy environment for everyone to use.
Three business department faculty at Glendale Community College are making this opportunity available for students. Dr. Gabriela Cojanu recruited and pre-selected students and along with Brent Kleinman and Yolanda Facio mentored students through the application process. The EEVF program will continue in Spring 2022, making it possible for additional students to receive funding.
EEVF is a program created by the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) to help community college students start and scale their businesses. NACCE is fostering community investment through this program by matching local donations up to $20,000.
For more information about the EEVF program and small business and entrepreneurship classes, contact Dr. Gabriela Cojanu at gabriela.cojanu@gccaz.edu