{"id":14805,"date":"2023-11-21T13:22:05","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T18:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=14805"},"modified":"2023-11-21T13:22:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T18:22:06","slug":"i-feel-more-hopeful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/i-feel-more-hopeful\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I feel more hopeful\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(From left) WBENC senior manager of programs, Audrey Awasom; pitch competition judges and UMES professors Dr. George Ojie-Ahamiojie, Dr. Cynthia Cravens, and Dr. Bryant Mitchell; pitch competition winner Cayla Jackson, and Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Endowed Chair Dr. Pamela Allison (Photo credit: Amir Martin).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Sometimes, the greatest ideas come from personal experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the case for University of Maryland Eastern Shore sophomore Cayla Jackson<\/strong> when she came up with the concept of \u201cKnew-U,\u201d an online platform focusing on self-care topics while also making shopping and booking services appointments easier and more personalized for its users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI grew up with personal insecurity, comparing myself with women on social media, or in magazines, and on TV and noticing that I don\u2019t look like that,\u201d she said. \u201cI tried to go and find different avenues to make myself look like that. It was my own personal frustrations manifesting into a movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson saw the concept of \u201cKnew-U\u201d as something that would beneficial to all women, which gave her the confidence to pitch her company at the Women\u2019s Business Enterprise National Council\u2019s (WBENC) Women of Color Incubator Program, hosted by UMES\u2019s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation on Nov. 10. Her faith was rewarded as she claimed the $1,500 first-place prize in seed capital and received an invitation to pitch her idea at the WBENC National Conference & Business Fair in Denver in March 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UMES was one of four HBCUs, including North Carolina A&T, Florida A&M, and Howard, selected to host the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Women of Color Incubator is an initiative designed for African-American female students at HBCUs, and provides the next generation of African-American women entrepreneurs with resources, community, and support needed to strengthen their ideas and grow their early-stage ventures, according to the WBENC website.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Cayla Jackson comes up to receive first place during the Women\u2019s Business Enterprise National Council\u2019s Women of Color Incubator pitch competition held at the UMES Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Kiah Hall on Nov. 10 (Photo credit: Amir Martin).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cOur program chair, Dr. Pamela Allison<\/strong> is a member of the WBENC through her personal business and that was how UMES became affiliated with this,\u201d said Kevin O\u2019Dell<\/strong>, the program specialist at the UMES Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. \u201cBy establishing the relationship with WBENC we knew that we would be a perfect candidate for this program, which gives us the opportunity to compete with other HBCUs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the incubator, the grouping participated in four sessions since September \u2013 two in-person and two virtual \u2013 featuring expert speakers from Fortune 500 companies giving testimonials and advice on how to implement and design their businesses and work through a business plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fifth and final event in the incubator was the pitch competition on Nov. 10 where every participant received a $100 cash prize and second place earned $500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other hopefuls who sought to promote their ideas included Ebony Jenkins<\/strong>, a doctoral candidate whose business plan centered on rearing insects for consumption. Jenkins\u2019s dissertation, focusing on rearing edible insects, has received attention as her research was featured on PBS\u2019s NOVA<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf an entity like PBS was interested in my work, why wouldn\u2019t other companies be interested as well as an alternative?\u201d Jenkins, who finished second in the competition, said. \u201cThe population is expected to explode to nine billion people, so we\u2019re going to need to find ways to feed people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to gaining free access to a network of more than 4,000 attendees, Jackson will vie for $25,000 in start-up money pitching their business in at the Women of Color Championship competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson, who has feverishly started to overhaul her pitch for the Denver competition, said being able to win the incubator helped instill more confidence in her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt taught me to be more confident in myself even if I\u2019m not all the way sure,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel hopeful. It\u2019s given me the realization that this idea can really come to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about the UMES Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, click on the link here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, the greatest ideas come from personal experiences. That was the case for University of Maryland Eastern Shore sophomore Cayla Jackson when she came up with the concept of \u201cKnew-U,\u201d an online platform focusing on self-care topics while also making shopping and booking services appointments easier and more personalized for its users. \u201cI grew up…Read more \u2018I feel more hopeful\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1559,"featured_media":14810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-14805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14805"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=14805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}