Center for Entrepreneurship

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Student Entrepreneur of the Year Awarded to Chris Cornwell

The Center for Entrepreneurship at Appalachian State University is pleased to announce the first ever Student Entrepreneur of the Year. The award was presented in front of more than 350 ASU students, faculty, staff and community members during the 2009 Young Entrepreneurs Symposium, to Eric Christianson Cornwell, a sophomore majoring in management with a concentration in entrepreneurship. This $2,500 scholarship award was given to honor exceptional entrepreneurial achievement. Students who have started businesses, on-campus programming, new clubs and organizations, as well as community service projects were all encouraged to apply and/or be nominated.

Ten students were nominated from all across campus. The Center for Entrepreneurship assembled a team of five faculty judges who didn’t know any of the nominees to evaluate the nominations and select the best one.

Eric Christianson Cornwell, known to friends and family as Chris, was selected by this panel of judges because it was evident, as stated in the words of his nominator that “this individual is the most hardworking entrepreneur that I have come across in my life”. His references backed up that statement. While a sophomore in high school, Chris started a window tinting business. Within a couple years and after assembling a team of talented window tinters, he began tinting commercial and residential properties and now his company is tinting windows all over the east coast. Since the window tinting business was a little slower in the winter, Chris wanted to do something to make money so he found a local computer graphics shop that was going out of business and bought some of their equipment and launched a graphics company that produced a wide variety of graphics for billboards, vehicles signs, and stickers. Somehow while doing this, he also found the time to become a semi-pro dirt bike rider and became an Amsoil dealer. What possibly tells you the most about this young man, however, is what he did just last summer. One of his friends was badly injured in a car accident. His friend’s father owned a landscaping company and was counting on his son to work for him over the summer. Because his son could not work, Chris took over his friend’s hours, working from 7 to 5 each day doing landscaping. Then he’d go work from 5pm to 2am on his business. Through networking with the landscaping business he met a man who commissioned him to tint all the windows in his 20,000 square foot estate. With more than 300 windows, this was the largest window tinting job he had ever done.

The student nominees for the Student Entrepreneur of the Year award were all highly qualified and the decision was a tough one for the judges. All nominees should be congratulated for their achievements.

Jay Kramer is a senior double majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Music, and Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. Jay is owner of High Country Booking, LLC, President of ASU based Split Rail Records, Vice President of the Association of Student Entrepreneurs, Chairman of APPs Club Shows on campus, and was the local band organizer for another student run business, Yellowdog Productions, who put on the Music on the Mountain festival last summer.

Jesse Kellogg, a junior Hospitality and Tourism major, is co-owner of Koncepts Hookah, LLC. Koncepts will be opening this spring on King Street in Boone. Jesse has built this business from the ground up, from idea creation to securing financing and finally renovating a building downtown to suit his business’s needs.

Sarah Green is a senior double majoring in Accounting and International Business, and founded the AIESEC Chapter for ASU. AIESEC is a global student organization that promotes cultural understanding while building student leadership skills. Sarah also founded the Global Opportunities Conference, now an annual event. The first GOC attracted more than 200 attendees and included speakers from the International Trade Administration, US Department of Commerce, and the Small Business Administration. Sarah will be traveling to Africa this summer to help teach social entrepreneurship in Uganda.

Jason Hunter McBride is a freshman who plans on majoring in Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. He was the president of DECA in High School and attended development conferences across the state and internationally. He started his social networking business in November of 2008.

Joel Gillie, a freshman who will major in Marketing, began dreaming of owning his own business at the age of 15. In high school, he founded Joel Gillie Productions, a mobile DJ and entertainment company, and has booked his services throughout much of North Carolina.

Richard Bryan Holbrook founded the ASU Club baseball team as a freshman and started his own baseball coaching business in 2008. He is a junior double majoring in Management and Marketing.

James Posedel is a sophomore Psychology major. He started his piano lesson business just after high school. In three years, he has grown it from just two students to ten students a week, who range in age from four to sixty three, and offers teaching lessons, hosting recitals, and brokering.

Kelly Penick founded her first company as a freshman at ASU. Kelly took the first steps towards realizing her dream of owning a spa and resort by working the entire summer after her freshman year, 6 days a week, 10 hours a day, to complete her esthetician’s license. She opened All About Beauty the beginning of her sophomore year. Kelly also became president of the Association of Student Entrepreneurs club as a freshman, and has won numerous local, state-wide, and national awards for her dedication to her entrepreneurial endeavors. Kelly is a sophomore majoring in Hospitality and Tourism.

Rio Tazewell is a Junior Environmental Policy and Planning major. In high school he secured grant funding to assemble a biodiesel processor, which he donated back to his school. He traveled to Nicaragua to assist with the installation of a turbine generator to provide irrigation for an organic coffee farm. He has continued his work at ASU as the Public Relations Chair for the ASU Renewable Energy Initiative and Public Relations Officer for the ASU Sustainable Energy Society. He has worked to bring awareness of environmental issues and renewable energy to ASU’s campus by organizing voting campaigns and serving as the NC Coordinator for PowerShift 2009.

Congratulations once again to all of our student entrepreneurs! For more information regarding this award and/or the Center for Entrepreneurship, please contact Julia Rowland, rowlandja@appstate.edu or 262-8325 or Bryan Toney, toneybc@appstate.edu / 262-6196.

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Contact Us

entrepreneur@appstate.edu
828-262-6196