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Hope College student wins entrepreneurial contest
3/8/2007
By Myron Kukla
The Grand Rapids Press
HOLLAND -- Hope College business management major Andrew Popchock took first place in the inaugural West Michigan Lakeshore Advantage Next Top Entrepreneur contest.
The 22-year-old Rochester Hills resident won $1,000 from Macatawa Bank in addition to offers from state businesses to help him launch his concept for a computer chip runners could wear that would allow family, friends and fans to follow runners in marathons.
"If you think about it, there are 40,000 runners in the Boston Marathon and 2 million spectators that only know at the start and end of the race where their favorite runner is at," he said.
"Think of the market if they could track them through the race."
Open to West Michigan college students, seven finalists presented their ideas to a panel of judges.
Second place and $500 went to Chad Hansen of Aquinas College. His idea was a baseball practice tee suspending a baseball in the air to make it more realistic to hit.
Third place and $250 went to Leo Morales, a Hope College student who proposed a plan to have airlines and airports combine on recycling efforts to reduce waste.
Lakeshore Advantage, a Zeeland-based economic development organization, sponsored the challenge with Zeeland and Holland Area chambers of commerce. The competition was organized in partnership with EntrepreneurshipWeek USA, a national effort to encourage young people to consider entrepreneurship as a career choice.
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