Chapman students bring the spirit of entrepreneurship to campus with new club
This year, students at Chapman University with dreams of starting their own business can get a jumpstart on launching their idea with the help of the Chapman Entrepreneurship Organization. Photo courtesy of Chapman Entrepreneurship Organization
In 2022, Aylo Corshen competed in the Panther Cage Match — a yearly “Shark Tank” event put on by the Argyros College of Business and Economics. This is a chance for student entrepreneurs like Corshen to apply their education and receive feedback, but the senior business administration major left the event thinking about something missing from his Chapman experience. He would later discuss his feelings with Cynthia West, the director of the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics, who sparked Corshen– who took second place in the competition– to take action.
“Something I expressed is that coming in, wanting to be an entrepreneur and taking the entrepreneurship emphasis, I really felt like I lacked the connection with entrepreneurs. I really found it hard to find those potential aspiring entrepreneurs,” Corshen told the Panther. “(West) asked: ‘Well is there a club on campus?”’
“Something I expressed is that coming in, wanting to be an entrepreneur and taking the entrepreneurship emphasis, I really felt like I lacked the connection with entrepreneurs. I really found it hard to find those potential aspiring entrepreneurs.”
The answer was no. So, Corshen started his own. He is now the president of the Chapman Entrepreneurship Organization, which has been up and running since October. 2023 and is already taking great strides to make the entrepreneurship program more inviting.
The Chapman Entrepreneurship Organization meets every Friday at either 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. depending on the week. Meetings are scheduled for Fridays in the hopes that students can come in and speak with peers who are working on their projects in the center. Check out their Instagram page for more information.
Starting a new organization can be a nerve-wracking experience, but Corshen and his fellow executives were pleasantly surprised by the amount of interest they were able to garner. Vice president Marcelo De La Maza, a senior business administration major who happens to have been Corshen’s partner for the last Panther Cage Match, spoke about what it felt like initially.
“The first meeting was really cool, because we didn’t know what to expect,” said De La Maza, who does a lot of the club’s social media outreach. “We were like ‘How many people are really gonna show?’ But people kept coming in and in and in, and I was kind of nervous. Now it’s more like we know each other… It was pretty exciting to see it come to life.”
The club currently has about 35 active members, and it’s growing every day. All three executives were in agreement on the sense of community that has been fostered during each of the meetings. Beyond being a chance for students to further themselves professionally, it is also a really great place to meet like-minded individuals with similar goals.
Some of the coolest features the club offers are its incubator program, in which students can flesh out potential business ideas, and the guest speaker program, which will begin next semester. Members of the club also have the unique opportunity to be taught by students with more business experience.
Junior business administration major Eli Schecter, the club’s main educator who sets all the curriculum, has launched several companies and recently raised nearly $500,000 for an artificial intelligence startup. In a recent meeting, he taught participating students about the art of the ‘elevator pitch.’ Schecter is excited about the potential of the club to bring about new opportunities for its members.
“I think that we’re going to see some businesses that get launched really as a by-product of people coming to the club and learning about entrepreneurship and having the resources they need to launch what they’re passionate about,” Schecter told The Panther.
Something the executive board wants students to know is that the club is not solely for business majors or minors.
“I think that entrepreneurs can come from anywhere,” Corshen said. “I think what we’re really trying to emphasize is that wherever you are, whatever field you’re in, whatever school you’re in at Chapman, it doesn’t matter because if you have ideas for what you want to start or what you want to make, those are the people we’re looking for.”
“I think that entrepreneurs can come from anywhere. I think what we’re really trying to emphasize is that wherever you are, whatever field you’re in, whatever school you’re in at Chapman, it doesn’t matter because if you have ideas for what you want to start or what you want to make, those are the people we’re looking for.”
The president has great hopes for the club and what it can achieve in the near future. They are already hoping to expand their reach to the greater Chapman community, hoping to bring attention to the existence of the club for any interested students. One particularly fun thing they’ve done is send robots around campus with free drinks for whoever’s lucky enough to find it.
“Kevin Meredith (who runs the incubator) has these robots… and he just brought them into the center,” De La Maza said. “He’s giving back to the students, so he brought them in to play around. And the robots have little coolers so he gave us the idea. He was like ‘Why don’t you go around campus with some drinks (given to the club by sponsors) in there?’… It was for fun, and it got some good attention.”
They really encourage anyone with even a small interest in entrepreneurship to join the club, regardless of whether you think you have an idea that will change the world.
“Our mission is really to create a space where we can unite Chapman entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial spirits to create a place where we can have guest speakers come in and give their wisdom, mentors who are willing to help out our entrepreneurs and an incubator we’re now launching to help kickstart ideas and turn them into reality,” Corshen said.
“Our mission is really to create a space where we can unite Chapman entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial spirits to create a place where we can have guest speakers come in and give their wisdom, mentors who are willing to help out our entrepreneurs and an incubator we’re now launching to help kickstart ideas and turn them into reality.”