May 11, 2023
Miller School provides RISE29 '22-'23 update
Including summer 2022, fall 2022, and spring 2023, RISE29 has conducted 60 internships resulting in 18,000 of field hours worked by our students. We worked with 18 small business clients, 9 startup business ventures, and 2 community initiatives.
To date, the RISE29 program has created 107 new jobs, 20 new microenterprises, and retained 16 at risk jobs.
RISE29 was able to take the lead in facilitating and hosting the Overton Pitch Competition. The Overton Pitch Competition was created to provide start-up funding for students looking to launch their micro-enterprises in eastern North Carolina. Students taking part in the competition qualified by participating in various programs and events that the university offers to support student-led business ventures. Students that participated included:
- Disc Dawg – Gabriel Pierre and Mason Caroon
- Flourish Mind + Body – Jennifer George
- Fosterline Support – Katie Rowland, Nicole Cerezo Santana, and Cameron Britton
- InHouse Call – Grant Smith, Katherine Arden, and Ethan Hayes
- Outlaw Keyboards – Andrew Faldzinski
A great achievement for the RISE29 program has been Ashley Nolan’s success with her small business, Copper Ashes. Copper Ashes is a jewelry store specializing in handcrafted jewelry created through a copper-plating process. Since the early stages, Copper Ashes has been a strictly e-commerce business, but in early March, Ashley expanded her copper jewelry and crystal business to a storefront in Greenville. Ashley was a very early intern in the RISE29 program, and upon interviewing her, RISE29 leadership decided to let her internship experience be an opportunity to work on her own business venture. Ashley was afforded the unique opportunity to work on Copper Ashes as her client in the program and was able to lay the foundation that she has built since then.
A unique client that we have worked with in the last year has been the Greenville United Football Team. This is a nontraditional client for the program, but our students have been able to work with this soccer team for the last year in supporting the mission to bring a national-level team to eastern North Carolina. The RISE29 team has consulted with the team since early on and was a part of the process of applying to the National Premier Soccer League, being accepted into the league, and preparing for the first season. This opportunity has been a unique spin on entrepreneurship, and we anticipate this will be a great economic driver for the region.
- Categories:
- Miller School of Entrepreneurship