Life Tacos wins $5K top prize at annual Entrepreneurship Competition

UPDATE: Life Tacos presented by juniors Julianna Dotterweich, an Accounting, Economics, and Business Administration major from Timonium, Md., and Jessie Titus, an Environmental Studies major from Frederick, Md., earned the $5,000 top prize as the first place winner of the fifth annual McDaniel College Entrepreneurship Competition, formerly the Innovation Challenge Finals. Life Tacos aims at giving people healthier food options that are more affordable and accessible.

Crowned Beauty presented by sophomores Jani Pierre, a Business Administration major with minors in Entrepreneurship and Marketing from Frederick, Md., and Mariama Mohammed, a Computer Science major from Woodbridge, Va., earned $1,000 for second place and Prime Reach presented by junior Joshua Arruda, an Accounting, Economics, and Business Administration major from Morrisville, Pa., received $1,000 as the People’s Choice Award winner.

All five of the student teams that competed in this year’s competition also received $1,000 for completing the Entrepreneur Boot Camp, a five-week program that was designed to develop student entrepreneurial ideas.

Five student teams compete for a $5K top prize by presenting their entrepreneurial ideas and products to a panel of experts at the annual McDaniel College Entrepreneurship Competition, formerly the Innovation Challenge Finals, on Thursday, April 29, at 7 p.m.

Other cash prizes include: $1,000 for second place and $1,000 for the People’s Choice Award. All five of the student teams also receive $1,000 for completing the Entrepreneur Boot Camp, a five-week program that led up to the competition that was designed to develop student entrepreneurial ideas. The event will be livestreamed via Zoom, a web-conferencing platform, for the general public. Register to join the virtual event here and view the program here.

The five finalists are:

CeReal Presented by senior Justin Chapin

Chapin is a Business Administration major with minors in Entrepreneurship and Marketing from Damascus, Md.

An app that organizes student activities, interests, and organizations to increase community engagement at colleges.

Crowned Beauty Presented by sophomores Jani Pierre and Mariama Mohammed

Jani Pierre is a Business Administration major with minors in Entrepreneurship and Marketing from Frederick, Md., and Mariama Mohammed is a sophomore Computer Science major from Woodbridge, Va.

Crowned Beauty will be the first business of its kind in Westminster, Md. “There are no beauty stores that cater specifically to people of color, and it would help McDaniel students who have to travel outside of Westminster to find basic hair products,” according to Pierre and Mohammed.

FluentSpeak Presented by senior Carly Critchfield

Critchfield is an Economics and Political Science major with a minor in Arabic from Grass Lake, Mich.

FluentSpeak utilizes short, language-specific assessments to match world language learners together at similar skill levels. "This is the first online platform specifically designed for those seeking to practice and improve their conversational language skills to be used in conjunction with or after completion of their world language studies,” according to Critchfield.

Life Tacos Presented by juniors Julianna Dotterweich and Jessie Titus

Julianna Dotterweich is a junior Accounting, Economics, and Business Administration major from Timonium, Md., and Jessie Titus is a junior Environmental Studies major from Frederick, Md.

Life Tacos aims at giving people healthier food options that are more affordable and accessible. “Life Tacos would provide an option for those customers that want to make a change in their personal health and for the environment,” added Dotterweich and Titus.

Prime Reach Presented by junior Joshua Arruda

Arruda is an Accounting, Economics, and Business Administration major from Morrisville, Pa.

A one-stop shop for independent artists and musicians seeking the right promotion. “All playlists are checked through chart metrics to ensure absolutely organic engagement,” according to Arruda.

The judges who will choose the winning teams include:

Rachel Druckenmiller, chief executive officer, speaker, and facilitator at Unmuted, LLC, which has a mission to humanize the workplace by igniting resilience, connection, and hope in leaders and teams through interactive keynotes, workshops, and leadership training. She is a 2006 alumna of McDaniel.
Lauren Asghari, founder and managing director at Alderson Loop, an information technology and creative project staffing and consulting company that works with commercial companies from funded start-ups to Fortune 500.
Graham Dodge, executive director at Mid-Atlantic Gigabit Innovation Collaboratory, Inc. (MAGIC), where he oversees workforce technology education programs and economic development initiatives. He also is a partner at Shield Pals, which helps children feel more at ease by creating fun personal protective gear for medical professionals.

McDaniel College’s entrepreneur-in-residence Jennifer Yang serves as the master of ceremonies.

The Entrepreneurship Competition is part of McDaniel’s Program in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (formerly The Encompass Distinction), an academic program in innovation and entrepreneurship that is open to students in any major.

By combining courses, off-campus learning experiences, and mentorship by entrepreneurial alumni of the college, the program allows students to gain broad-ranging skillsets required for enterprise management. McDaniel students also can choose to minor in Entrepreneurship or major or minor in Marketing.

Dana Ferraris, associate professor of Chemistry at McDaniel and The John Desmond Kopp Professorship in the Sciences, serves as the program’s interim director. Ferraris, who has taught at McDaniel since 2015, serves as department chair for the Chemistry Department and is actively involved in mentoring undergraduate students through the college’s student-faculty research program.

The McDaniel Entrepreneurship Competition is made possible with the generous support of Ed Smith ‘71 and Wilma Smith ‘70, Ron Cronise ‘63, Justin Simon and Driven Media Group, Jason Stambaugh '07, and Josh Ambrose, director of student ventures at the Johns Hopkins University.