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VOL. 108, NO. 26
WA K E F O R E S T ’ S S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R S I N C E 1 9 1 6
APRIL 14, 2022
“Covers the campus like the magnolias”
Students pitch new ventures at Entrepalooza Members of the Startup Lab course presented their entrepreneurial ideas to students, faculty and investors KRISTEN HEILENMAN Contributing Writer On April 7, more than 400 people gathered in Brendle Auditorium in Scales Fine Arts Center to celebrate the sixth annual Entrepalooza event. Hosted by the Center of Entrepreneurship, this event allowed nine groups of Wake Forest students to present their entrepreneurial ventures. The students who presented at this event are a part of the Startup Lab class (ENT399) in the Entrepreneurship program. They applied to be enrolled in the course last September and were selected in October. This year, there were more than 70 applicants of which nine were chosen. Gregory Pool — director of the Startup Lab and assistant professor of the practice of entrepreneurship — is extremely pleased with the outcome and recognizes the timeintensive aspect of the event. “We had nine student ventures who were pitching,” Pool said. “They spent hundreds of hours working on the ventures themselves, but at least dozens of hours and dozens of run-throughs of the pitches in order to be ready for the event.” One of the student entrepreneurs is senior David Sinclair. He pitched his venture “Armago”, an app that helps university campuses organize and advertise their intramural, club and varsity sporting events. Originally from the United Kingdom, Sinclair and his friends recognized the lack of sports in university life and wanted to find a solution. According to Sinclair, Armago ran a poll that found 90% of students in the U.K. wanted more sports involvement. “We wanted to find a more fun, inter-
Photo courtesy of Dakin Moore
In front of hundreds of people in attendance, these 11 students presented their new business pitches that they have been developing in their Startup Lab class since October. esting, social way to fix the issue of sports involvement at the university level,” Sinclair said. “We came up with ‘Armago’. It’s simply an app to facilitate all of your club and intramural needs and spread all of that information regarding intramural, club and varsity sporting events all across your campus. We’re currently helping club
communities, and, in turn, university campuses as a whole, create that thriving, interactive sporting atmosphere full of actively engaged members.” Sinclair emphasizes the many positive aspects of Startup Lab — especially the support from those inside and outside the program.
“I wanted to do it because the culture in the Startup Lab program was fantastic,” Sinclair said. “Everyone was always helping each other out, and that’s a big reason why I chose to come to Wake Forest — because of the culture of everyone lending a hand.”
See Entrepalooza, Page 3
WFU classes travel to D.C. for 'ACCelerate' festival Students showcased two exhibits in 'ACCelerate': Smithsonian Creativity and Innovation Festival MADDIE STOPYRA Staff Writer
This past weekend, April 8-10, two Wake Forest classes traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in “ACCelerate”: Smithsonian Creativity and Innovation Festival. Alongside the Smithsonian Institution, 12 schools in the Atlantic Coastal Conference (ACC) participated in the event. Wake Forest presented two exhibits entitled “Fake news, Fact-Checking and Facebook: Teaching Misinformation and Disinformation in the Perfect
Storm” and “Viral Outbreaks: Preparation and Prevention in a Connected World”. These two exhibits were inspired by two First Year Seminar courses taught at Wake Forest — one about misinformation on the internet and one about pandemics. Facilitated by Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology and the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, the festival was held at the National Museum of American History. Free and open to the public, the event showcased 25 exhibits across the partici-
pating schools. The official ACCelerate website gives a brief description of the festival. “ACCelerate is a celebration of creative exploration and innovative research happening at the intersection of science, engineering, arts and design from across the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Smithsonian Institution.” The misinformation exhibit focused on conspiracy theories, algorithms and strategies to combat misinformation online. Its goal was to promote news literacy and caution among internet users while consuming information online.
Amanda Foster Kaufman, a learning and instructional services librarian at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library, was involved in the exhibits and described her team and class that participated in the festival. “I was co-leading the team discussing fake news, fact checking and Facebook with Hu Womack, Meghan Webb and Roz Tedford,” Kaufman said. “All of us had taught first-year seminars in the past several years that covered these topics and several of our former students joined the trip.”
See Festival, Page 4
