Muhlenberg in Photos: Failure Fest and Innovation Challenge
The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program hosts these events each spring semester.By: Meghan Kita Thursday, June 22, 2023 01:49 PM
Raivat Shah ’23 pitches a smart alarm clock product at the 2023 Innovation Challenge. Photo by Marco CalderonIn April, innovation & entrepreneurship students and faculty had their hands full as they collaborated on two major campus events.
The first, Failure Fest, is meant to celebrate risk-taking and resiliency. Students enjoyed snacks and failure-themed games (a ring toss around cans of notorious failure “New Coke,” for example) before hearing from the evening’s speakers. Professor of Biology and Director of Sustainability Studies Rich Niesenbaum, founder of Pipit's Bakery Sarah Kauzmann ’16 and Associate Professor of Business & Economics Donna Bergenstock shared their stories of taking risks and failing — for example, one of Kauzmann’s stories involved losing an earring in a batch of macarons and having to throw them all out.
A couple of weeks later, 12 students participated in the 13th annual Innovation Challenge, a Shark-Tank-like competition for student entrepreneurs. The first-place idea of the seven ideas pitched came from Virginia McCoySwinehart ’23, who pitched a nonprofit app called Mission Missing that would provide resources to help missing children be found.
See photos from both events below.
