By Nicole Chan
Let’s think back to when you moved into college. Your comfort items were stowed into boxes. You and your parents may have taken an obligatory trip to IKEA to purchase a small microwave, collapsible laundry hamper, and other space-saving items. Your first year at college introduced you to a new way of life – of student lounges, dorm room hangouts, and a new sense of independence. You may have joined a club or an intramural sport. It’s possible that you may have seen a lot of the inside of a library while cramming for midterms and finals. Perhaps you spent most of the time figuring out the exact amount of minutes it would take for you to roll out of bed and run to class.
Five students, Jacob Becraft, Paul Wiley, Andrew Joshua Nagal, Flavio Somanji, Miracle Olatunji, did all of the above and one thing more. This one critical element separates them from the average university student.
These five students have something in common with the founders of Facebook, Google, Dell, Dropbox, Kinko’s, Microsoft, Napster, Reddit, Snapchat, and WordPress.
Jacob, Paul, Andrew, Flavio, and Miracle are business owners as well as full time students.
Jacob Becraft – Strand Therapeutics
Paul Wiley – Wilox Assets
Andrew Joshua Nagal – Bakku Technologies
Flavio Somanji – EcoDemand™
Miracle Olatunji – OpportuniMe
EO Boston, for the last several years, has been part of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) Competition. GSEA is the premier global competition for students who own and operate a business while attending college or university. EO GSEA supports student entrepreneurs who require much needed mentorship, recognition and connections to take their businesses to the next level of success. EO Boston members rallied and provided over $300,000 in-kind sponsorship package for the top three winners of our GSEA competition.
GSEA provides student ent the opportunity to accelerate their success, challenge the status quo, connect to an instrumental peer group and make the greatest impact possible in their community.
We congratulate Jacob Becraft – Strand Therapeutics who will be representing Boston in the GSEA National Finals in Denver (January 2019) and hope that he will continue to represent us in the international GSEA Finals in Macau, China (April 2019)! Congratulations to our runners up, Paul Wiley – Wilox Assets and Andrew Joshua Nagal – Bakku Technologies.
Special thanks to our EO Boston Event Sponsors:
Filmmaking by Nicole Chan Studios (www.nicolechanstudios.com)
WeWork Event Space by TriNet (https://www.trinet.com/)
Event Volunteer Support by OvationComm (https://www.ovationcomm.com/) and eTower (https://www.etower.org)
Special thanks to the following companies, most whose CEOs are part of the EO Boston Family, who donated to the GSEA Prize Package
Cheshire Impact
Greek Kitchen Management
Trident Growth Partners
PropFuel, Inc.
SOBOconcepts
Sophelle
Trapology Boston
HireMinds LLC
1-800-GotJunk
Boston Human Capital Partners
Lexington Wealth Management
SimplyDIRECT
Growth companies advisor & Business Angel
Prism Boston
ThinkTech Computers
Nicole Chan Studios
Window Seat Media
On The Avenue Marketing
Ayantek
Stack Sports
Best Delegate
Genesis Advisers
Trinet
Blog post written by Nicole Chan, Boston EO GSEA Director, and CEO of Nicole Chan Photography.