Southern Accent Southern to host Adventist entrepreneurial conference meant to inspire student businesses Candidates present speeches for Student Association elections

On Thursday, Feb. 17, five candidates running for Student Association (SA) president, vice president and social vice president gave speeches during convocation. In the coming week, students will have a chance to vote some of those individuals into office for the next academic year.

Hyve Creators 2023, an entrepreneurial conference featuring successful investors and business innovators in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, will take place on Southern Adventist University’s campus from March 2-5.

According to Southern’s website, the event will provide attendees with “many networking opportunities, workshops, keynotes, testimonies, pitches, and booths — all focused on combining mission, innovation, and entrepreneurship.”

The conference will take place in the Collegedale Church of Seventh-day Adventists and Iles Gym. Multiple individuals, including David Asscherick, co-director of Light Bearers, will speak. Individu- als can register and view the list of speakers and schedule at hyveinternational.org.

Businesses can also register for booths to sell products and advertise. However, as of Sunday, Feb. 19, only five spots were left. Registering for a booth costs $399 for standard businesses and $99 for student businesses.

As of Wednesday, Feb. 15, over 350 individuals were registered to attend, and 139 businesses were registered to have booths, according to Lauryn Daniels, senior public relations major. Daniels is co-project manager of BringIt alongside Kelsie Alonso, sophomore entrepreneurship major.

The event is the product of a partnership between Southern’s School of Business, Enactus South- ern's BringIt team and Hyve International, described by Daniels as a worldwide community of missional Seventh-day Adventist entrepreneurs.

Daniels said the BringIt project aims to connect student entrepreneurs with mentors to help grow their businesses. The project is known for hosting an annual pitch competition, and it will host the competition this year during Hyve Creators 2023, she added. The competition, titled “The Lion’s Den,” will involve 10 startup businesses presenting to a panel of investors and members of Hyve International in what Southern’s website described as “an Adventist version of Shark Tank.”

According to Daniels, the first place winner will receive $5,000, the second place winner $2,500 and the third place winner $1,000. On Friday, March 4, the conference will also host a competition for 10 early-stage business startups. The first place winner will receive $3,000, the second place winner $1,000 and the third place winner $750.

“Last year, they offered loans [during BringIt’s pitch competition],” Alonso said. “This year, we’re doing prize money. This won’t be a loan.”

Daniels said each winner will have the opportunity to accept a loan, but they will still receive the prize money whether or not they take one.

As of Wednesday, Feb. 15, the pitch competitions had over 50 submissions sent in by students

A conversation with the handler of ‘Dog Days’ therapy

Emily Morgan Staff Writer

Babytalk isn’t usually what a person expects when they go to McKee Library. Yet, when a student sees the tiny Lowchen dog, Atreyu, in a baby stroller, the response is almost automatic.

Atreyu is a therapy dog employed by the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. According to the Mckee Library website, the library partners with the business and another one called Therapy Dogs International to provide students with therapy dog visits throughout the academic year. According to Sharen Fisher, Atreyu’s human partner, during the 2020 school year, therapy dog visits halted.

“When COVID came, my other dog who’d been coming here since May [2015] was beside him[self],” Fisher said. “He chased me around the house when it was time to get ready to go. He knew his schedule, and he knew when he was coming here.”

Excluding 2020, Fisher and her canine partners have been regularly coming to McKee Library since May 2015. She said Atreyu is very social and has no preference for what kind of people he likes.

“I think [Atreyu] likes everybody,” Fisher said.

Therapy dogs are born, not made, she added.

“I have had [dog handlers] tell me, they went into [therapy situations in nursing homes] and their dog just curled up in a ball and shook,” Fisher said.

On Tuesday, Feb. 21, there was a press conference held in the Thatcher chapel where students asked the candidates questions. General electionvoting begins on Feb. 23. Kari Shultz, director of Student Life and Activities, said Student Development will know the winners shortly after 11 p.m.

According to Shultz, the university will send out a survey to the student body to vote for the candidates after convocation on Feb. 23.

During his speech on Thursday, Jared Chandler, senior finance major and one of the candidates running for president, said he wants to help students feel safe on campus by adding lights along the promenade, and he wants to help Thatcher Hall’s gym get new equipment.

Chandler’s main goals are to