6 minute read
Start Something
Warrior Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program
Warrior Entrepreneurship & Innovation Student Group Imagining Exciting Futures
By Lori Gilbert
“Start something” is the slogan of the Warrior Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group, a new student organization at Stan State. The invitation is featured on the newly created WE&I Group website (theweigroup.com) under announcements about upcoming events.
It’s catchy. It also cuts to the heart of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Start something, like your own accounting operation that helps a variety of businesses as Stanislaus State business student Mark Powell envisions.
Or start your own human resources firm and help various businesses build great HR programs, rather than spend a career or several years in one place, which is the dream of business major Ethan Beaudette.
Beaudette is president and Powell is vice president of the WE&I Group, formed in the spring semester, and off and running with a website, social media accounts, ideas for programs including guest presenters and plans to invite students from across the academic spectrum to join. The student organization works closely with the overarching Warrior Entrepreneurship and Innovation (WEI) program at Stan State.
“Any student looking to turn their dreams into a lifelong venture, that’s our goal,” Beaudette said. “We’re student driven. We’re all about students and making sure they’re finding careers they want. I’ve always had the fear of being stuck in a cubicle doing a job I didn’t want to do. That’s every college student’s fear.”
It takes imagination, daring and maybe some luck to avoid that fear. The Porges Family Foundation, which funded the Warrior Entrepreneur and Innovation program at Stan State, understands that. Norm Porges and his son Evan, an Arizona State University graduate, started Prime Shine Car Wash in 1991 and saw their business grow to 20 branches, all the while supporting Stan State, first with the Champions of the American Dream Award, and in 2021, a $250,000 gift for the three-year Warrior Entrepreneurship and Innovation (WEI) program.
The program is multifaceted, with mentorships, scholarships, internships, interview training and the establishment of the Porges Champions Faculty Fellow. Business Lecturer Pablo Paredes Romero was named to the fellowship position in January and went to work immediately. He’s recorded a series of podcasts with local entrepreneurs, who share their own stories.
“One of the missions of the Warrior Entrepreneurship and Innovation program is to expand the definition of entrepreneurship locally,” Paredes Romero said. “I believe that’s how we enter thought leadership spaces at the institution. There’s no reason Stan State shouldn’t be the beacon of all these things, the centrifuge, the hub. I’ve been looking for podcast guests who reflect different spaces. It’s not just starting a business. I have guests who are active in the community, or who are starting social (nonprofit) entrepreneurships that benefit the community and society.”
More importantly than expanding the understanding of entrepreneurship, Paredes Romero’s first task was to recruit students to the cause.
“I saw there was a gap,” Paredes Romero said. “There are wonderful students looking for opportunities. They’re curious. They’re fearless. So, here is this wonderful idea. I thought, if the students had the opportunity to see what this was about, they would, in short order, take this over. That’s what I’m starting to see happen.”
As an entrepreneur, Paredes Romero established Aliado Consulting and he brings his considerable expertise in human resource management and organizational behavior and develop to the WEI program. He sought students who shared his entrepreneurial interests and reached out to Beaudette, whose work in his technical writing course and the way he attracted the attention of other students caught his eye. Beaudette enlisted Powell, a fellow Modesto Junior College transfer he’d met at Stan State. Others soon joined.
“He was over the moon about it, really interested,” Powell said. “I take his opinion seriously. I trusted him. It’s why I joined the club. He sent me statistics from a Stanislaus 2030 report showing 20 percent of jobs in the Central Valley are considered good paying jobs.
“Ethan and I talked about this. We want to bridge the gap between college and a good career.”
Both Powell and Beaudette are sons of entrepreneurs. Powell’s family owns tire businesses; Beaudette’s father is a contractor who teaches standardized business practices. They both bring these local business perspectives to the WEI effort and are excited to share with their peers. Paredes Romero, who was born in New Jersey, grew up in Puerto Rico and went to college in Florida. He began his career in Florida, then worked in Houston and in Southern California before moving to his wife’s hometown of Modesto eight years ago. He also teaches four classes at Menlo College, his link to Silicon Valley.
What Powell and Beaudette have not learned from the family businesses, they are primed to discover through the WE&I Group and the variety of events and activities offered by the WEI program. They envision attending job fairs or hosting one themselves. And, while housed in the College of Business Administration, the WE&I Group is not limited to students in that major.
“Entrepreneurial spirit can be found in any major or area of study,” Powell said. “It’s not just about business. It’s about separating yourself from an organization and starting something on your own.”
A week before fall classes began, Beaudette was already envisioning campus outreach.
“Events are coming up,” Beaudette said. “We have community sources anxious to join us. We have a real estate professional interested in internships. Veterans Services are interested in being partners and the Stanislaus Latino Chamber of Commerce is loving the idea. I hope the students are. All they have to do is take a peek and get to know what we’re doing. We want them to get careers going and figure out what they want to do with their lives.”
Paredes Romero is awed by the enthusiasm he has seen as this initiative launches.
“There is a spirit, a Warrior spirit that exists,” Paredes Romero said. “They are scrappers, ready to explore spaces they don’t know much about. That’s part of the reason we will succeed. It’s about the students. The system, fueled by the dreams and desires and wanderlust of the students, makes this what it is.”
Paredes Romero will guide them with his own experience and as he conducts podcasts and leverages his community ties with the Small Business Development Center and other entities to connect students with local entrepreneurs and small business owners.
The early efforts are being noticed.
“The Porges Family Foundation is excited to see the Warrior Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI) take off under the direction of Dr. Paredes Romero,” Evan Porges said. “With the support of Dean Terence Pitre in the College of Business Administration, Pablo has been the spark necessary to launch this exciting program to the next level. Pablo is excited about the program’s potential to illuminate and inspire Stan State students to dream about someday owning and operating a business — to achieve their own slice of the American Dream.”
We want to bridge the gap between college and a good career.
- Mark Powell
