// FEATURE
JPEC was awarded International Business Innovation Association Student Entrepreneurship Program of the Year in 2016.
ENTREPRENEUR
EVOLUTION Student entrepreneur Darian Jones (Accounting ’17)
When Laurie Watje joined UNI’s business college in 2007, the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC) was still in its infancy. It was created more than a decade prior to spur entrepreneurship among young people in Iowa thanks to a gift from Des Moines venture capitalist John Pappajohn. Watje, now the JPEC associate director, has heard stories from those early years. Students interested in entrepreneurship were few and far between, but they were persistent. JPEC was initially located in a small office in the marketing department, relocating in 2007 to the Business and Community Services building. Watje said student entrepreneurship at the time was almost nonexistent in Iowa so it was necessary to advertise that this was a tangible career path. “We had to educate people that these were people starting their own business,” Watje said. “They were generating revenue, paying taxes and employees. It’s legitimate. It just wasn’t a common viewpoint at the time.” Ben Frein (Finance and Computer Science ’07) was one of the first successful students to go through the program. When he arrived at UNI’s business college in the mid-2000s, JPEC was in the middle of transitioning to a full-time incubation space in the new Business and Community Services building. Frein, who started an online retail business with his friends in high school, worked out of a temporary office in a mobile trailer near the Industrial Technology Center. Campus security would sometimes question why he was on campus
UNI BIZ 2020-2021
University of Northern Iowa spends decades turning hobbies into careers.
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