Three Catamount tennis players teamed up off the court recently to compete together as young entrepreneurs taking part in the university’s WISE Challenge. Trish Hanson, Susanna Sjokvist and Mariona Trilla Jane tapped their own interests to create a new service that combines athletics and international travel.
Calling their service Athlete’s Exchange, they developed the idea of facilitating European travel for young people by tailoring their sporting interests with stops at premier facilities. The service also would match foreign athletes, specifically tennis players, to U.S. scholarships. “Focus on the customer, that’s the most important thing,” said Jane, a senior majoring in international business.
The WISE Challenge, or Western’s Innovative Student Enterprise Challenge, began in early September by inviting teams of undergraduate students to develop original ideas – along with business plans – for new products, technologies or services. Western faculty and staff served as mentors to the participants.
“The contest is meant to be really fun and to get students excited about their ideas,” said Jonathan Snover, a chemistry professor and director of the science and entrepreneurship master’s degree program. “At the same time, having a good idea is not enough,” said Snover, also a competition mentor. “It has to translate into business.”
Athlete’s Exchange, one of nine teams to advance to the competition’s final round, earned third prize of $1,000. Students participating in the contest, which boasted $5,000 in prize money, came from across disciplines, with many studying entrepreneurship, business, engineering or the sciences. Each team received $400 to help pay for expenses such as producing a prototype, travel or hiring outside counsel. The final judging used criteria including innovation or uniqueness, relevance to the intended market and the team’s depth of knowledge. Competition rules required teamwork because that is a reality in the business world, Snover said.
The tennis team members are especially suited to international pursuits, with three of the team’s seven players from other countries. Jane, who speaks Spanish, English, Catalan, and some Italian and French, arrived at Western two years ago from her native Barcelona, Spain. Sjokvist, of Gustafs, Sweden, and Hanson, an American from Alpharetta, Ga., have known each other four years, since they both arrived at Western as freshmen.
Head coach Jan Stubbs, who like many coaches recruits internationally, said her U.S. players make a special effort to help their foreign team members adjust to life at Western. “They try to make them feel welcome, take them around and show them the ropes,” Stubbs said.
Jane, Sjokvist and Hanson are so excited about their idea that they’ve taken it on the road. In early March, when the team spent several days on the coast playing matches, “they worked on the project while we were in Hilton Head,” Stubbs said.