ESI marks 20 years at AACC

Zack Buster Editor-in-Chief

AACC’s Entrepreneurial Studies Institute will celebrate 20 years on campus this spring as it hosts its 19th annual Business Pitch Competition.

Former ESI Academic Chair Carlene Cassidy said she started the institute and the Shark Tank-style contest two decades ago to teach student entrepreneurs how to “bootstrap” their businesses with “practical” lessons for refining their ideas. Students compete for thousands of dollars in cash prizes to help them get on their feet.

“There are some core, fundamental things that every business owner should have under their belt,” Cassidy, CEO of the Philip E. and Carole R. Ratcliffe Foundation, said. “It’s really [about] seeing students grow through the process. The competition is the culmination of that.”

Student entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas every year in a Shark Tank-style competition to win cash prizes. Shown, mentor Steve Berry, left, poses with contestant Ron Parker at a kickoff event.

The foundation has donated almost $25 million nationwide to entrepreneurship-based scholarships and competitions like AACC’s Business Pitch.

In 19 years of those competitions at AACC, the foundation has funded almost