Endowment funds $14,000 business plan competition

The Department of Business Administration held its inaugural Rogers Business Plan Competition with prizes totaling $14,000 this spring.

All students were eligible to submit written business plans, and five teams with the best plans were invited to compete. Each team had 10 minutes to present its business idea to a panel of business professionals, followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer session.

The Howard and Helen Rogers Entrepreneurial Endowment provided the funds for prizes of $7,000, $4,500 and $2,500 for the first-, second- and third-place teams, respectively.

Those taking home the prizes were:

• First place – Connor Woolf ’17 and Janice Wu ’18 for JobPlug, a new type of job-hunting website that simplifies the process
• Second place – Dana Goggin ’17, Katie Le ’18 and Trisha Piekarczyk ’17 for PEAK, a smartphone app to help roommates split bills, buy household supplies and divide chores
• Third place – Camilo Duarte ’17 for 2Improv, an improv comedy club

Generous donors push past goal

For A Day of Giving on April 19, nearly 1,200 alumni, parents, students and friends of the college gave $290,952, passing the day’s goal of $250,000, to support the mission of the college.

A Day of Giving began with a campus gathering at the Brew where faculty and staff shared why they support Augustana. Gift challenges and gatherings across the country throughout the day brought alumni together to celebrate their Augustana experiences and support the experiences of current and future students.

“It was a complete Augustana community effort on campus and beyond,” said Cameron Hall, director of annual giving. “Our theme of ‘Give. Gather. Share Your Pride.’ truly defines what transpired in those 24 hours. We’re grateful for everyone’s generosity.”

Plans for an even bigger spring day of giving in 2018 already are underway.

Augustana receives funds for research