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Tennessee State Students Win Business Competition

Photo credit: W A. Pinion Students Josef Robinson, left, James Sanders, April M. Thomas, William F. Busch III and Thomas Tate, shown with team coach William U. Latham, at right, swept the business-plan competition in Atlanta.

By Itoro Umontuen
Black College Wire

Five Tennessee State University students brought home the first-place award in a business competition among historically black college and universities.

The team of four undergraduates and a master’s of business administration student competed against 19 HBCUs with graduate business programs. The team also won the Best Presentation and Best Business Plan awards.

They competed at the Sixth Annual Opportunity Funding Corporation Venture Challenge Business Plan Competition in Atlanta, held April 6-9.

It was the first time that one university won all three major awards. The team received a prize of $10,000, which was divided among its members.

“Our business plan was centered on a watch made by KardioTrac Inc.,” said James Sanders, a senior electrical engineering major from Memphis. “The watch is used to monitor electrocardiograph signals and sends the data to medical professionals via a wireless network. Basically, doctors can monitor someone’s heart from any location.”

According to the plan, “KardioTrac, Inc. will provide web and wireless monitoring of cardiovascular patients."

The information could be monitored by the patient "or wirelessly, using M2M technology, by remote KardioTrac monitoring specialists.”

Thomas Tate Jr. of Silver Spring, Md., the lone MBA student, said the win was important on two levels.

“No. 1: We proved ourselves not only to local and regional companies, but to national and worldwide companies and businesses,” Tate said. “This will cause these Fortune 500 companies to consider TSU students because of the recognition we garnered. No. 2: This win will raise the bar for the students. We expected excellence when we entered the competition and that’s what we received. The same principle applies to TSU students. If you expect mediocrity, you’ll receive mediocrity.”

The Opportunity Funding Corp. sponsors the annual competition to encourage entrepreneurship at HBCUs with graduate programs in business. Tennessee State has participated in the competition five of six years.

In addition to Sanders and Tate, the team consisted of William F. Busch III, a senior marketing major from St. Louis; Josef Robinson, a senior real estate and urban development major from Atlanta; and April M. Thomas, a senior accounting major from Albany, Ga.

“These students were able to perform well in the competition because each of the undergraduates are in TSU’s Honors Program and the leadership curriculum has fully prepared them for this event and it gave them a competitive edge,” said William U. Latham, team coach, faculty adviser and director at the Tennessee Small Business Development Center.

“The reaction of the other schools was half joy and half shock,” Latham said. “No one expected a team consisting of four undergrads and one MBA student to sweep all the categories.”•

Itoro Umontuen, a student at Tennessee State University, is a business columnist for the Meter.

Posted April 24, 2006