The Elon Enterprise Academy (EEA), which allows students to apply management and marketing skills through the development of new business enterprises, is launching new initiatives. Details...
The new projects include a jazz CD to be produced by the ImproVibes recording label; a book publishing press; a campus events planning group and a marketing services group.
The Elon ImproVibes recording label, part of the EEA, will produce a new jazz CD featuring jazz vibraphonist Jon Metzger, an Elon music faculty member, with the Common Ground quintet and other jazz artists. The CD is scheduled for release in September.
A new publishing enterprise, InaNutShell Press, will identify and produce literary and educational books. Its first book, authored by Elon chaplain Richard McBride, will discuss the critical transitions young adults face as they move from adolescence to adulthood. The book is scheduled for publication in June.
The Elon Events Enterprise (E3), a division of the EEA, is planning three events for the 2003-04 school year. A food festival, called “A Taste of Elon,” is scheduled for fall 2003, and will feature food booths sponsored by local vendors and a barbecue and chili cook-off. The event will be held on the Elon campus or in downtown Elon.
A November event called “Run for the Oaks and Dog Days of Elon” will give dog owners and their animals a day to enjoy a charity run and dog events such as an agility competition and Frisbee competition. The N.C. Lung Association will sponsor the run, and proceeds from the dog events will benefit the SPCA.
A two-day festival in April 2004 will include a top-name band and a local band competition. The festival, which has yet to be named, will also have an international cultural event including local and regional bands.
Junior Undergraduate Marketing Professionals (JUMP) will offer basic marketing strategies and conduct promotional and marketing research for other EEA enterprises, student organizations and area businesses. The group is working to produce a Web-based admissions video for Elon, as well as an audio CD about world slavery featuring noted slavery activist Kevin Bales and Tom Arcaro, professor of sociology at Elon.
The Elon Enterprise Academy is funded by a $385,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE). Barth Strempek, associate professor of business administration in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business at Elon, administers the grant. Founded in 2001, the EEA allows students to build a company from the ground up while learning skills necessary to be successful in business.