Caesar received the award May 8 during the ĚýThe 2018 winner, Olivia Hettman, presented the prize to Caesar and spoke about what the opportunity of receiving the prize last year meant to her.

Alicia-Ann Caesar, left, receives the $5,000 award from the 2018 winner, Olivia Hettman. (Photo by Aaron Houston)

When Caesar was asked what the prize meant, she stated, “I am extremely grateful to have been selected this year’s Promise Prize Scholar. Once I found out the criteria for the nomination I became overwhelmed at just the idea that one of my professors would nominate me. I plan to fully engage with the Change Create Transform Foundation, the Montclair State faculty committee, especially Professor Taylor the program’s new academic advisor, and the previous winners in the area. I am inspired to work harder for myself to get to a place to support others. Marie Nesbitt’s story and legacy is an inspiration. The opportunity to learn from her granddaughter, the Foundation’s founder Ms. Vikki Pryor, and be mentored by outstanding community members is exciting and not an opportunity I plan to waste. I am honored.”

Caesar is an MBA student with a Master’s in Public Administration, Nonprofit Management from Kean University, and a Bachelor’s of Art in History from The College of New Jersey. When asked why she is pursuing an MBA, Alicia-Ann quickly answered, “Because it’s time for me to be a CEO.” That gives a glimpse of the drive, passion and enthusiasm of Caesar. Besides the cash, the students selected for the prestigious award become part of a network established by the prize’s sponsor, the Change Create Transform Foundation.

Caesar is also the Director of Quality Improvement, Risk Management and Training at Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey. She also has a strong interest in women empowerment, and is very active with community service. Alicia-Ann is from Liberia, and is mulling starting a business someday to sell Liberian spices/sauces. She calls herself a “secret farmer” because of the volunteer work she does with community gardening.

Alicia-Ann Caesar speaks during the Promise Prize ceremony. (Photo by Aaron Houston)

Past winners of the Promise Prize are:

• 2014: Alanda Alexandre, who has two degrees from Montclair State, a Business Administration degree with concentrations in Finance and Management, and an MBA degree.
• 2015 winner: Dana LaCondre-Nugent who has a Master’s and Bachelor’s in Accounting from Montclair State.
• 2016 winner: Stanley Fils, who majored in Justice Studies at Montclair State and then obtained an MBA degree from the university
• 2017 winner: Kishawn Jean-Pierre, graduated as an accounting major.
• 2018 winner: Olivia Hettman, who is graduating this May and obtaining her MBA in the fall.

From left: Sharon Waters, Dennis Bone,ĚýAgatha Jeffers,ĚýFaith Taylor, Olivia Hettman (2018 winner),ĚýDevon Johnson, Alicia-Ann Caesar (2019 winner), Mariah Mayers, Hermann Sintim-Aboagye.

The 2019 selection committee included staff from the Feliciano School of Business: Agatha Jeffers, Accounting professor; Devon Johnson, Marketing professor; Mariah Mayers, assistant director of Career Services; Hermann Sintim-Aboagye, Finance Professor; Faith Taylor, Marketing professor; and Sharon Waters, interim director of the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship.

The 2019 UPitchNJ prizes were awarded to:

First – Stevens (game-based software to help autistic students)
Second – Rutgers (tech to power drones and rovers for deliveries)
Third – Montclair State (3D-printed device to hold hooks while fishing)
Best Early-Stage Startup –ĚýPrincetonĚý(a water filter being used in a pilot program in Flint, MI)

The other eight schools that competed were: Fairleigh Dickinson, Monmouth, NJIT, Ramapo,ĚýRider, Rowan, Seton Hall, William Paterson.

Montclair State remains the only school that has won a prize every year in the contest–a testament to the innovative and forward-looking curriculum designed by Dennis Bone that allows us to enter consistently high-quality and interdisciplinary teams every year. Prof. Ross Malaga taught and mentored Morgan and Siegmeister in ENTR 303, and Profs. Jason Frasca and Iain Kerr spent many hours working with the two students as they iterated on 3D print designs of their device in the MIX Lab (the MIX Lab is a resource for any student).ĚýMorgan’s and Siegmeister’s path to UPitchNJ glory began in Jason Frasca’s classroom when they took ENTR 201 “Entrepreneurial Mindset and Innovation,” which is open to any student of any major.

“To be chosen to represent ĚÇĐÄvlog was humbling,” said Morgan. “Placing third out of all the other schools was a true statement to us as a team that our product has great potential in the future. Outstanding competition at UPitchNJ, and the atmosphere was energizing.”

Watch TacOp, and 13 other Montclair State teams, compete for $80,000 in prizes on May 8 in University Hall Conference Center during Montclair State’s sixth annual pitch contest, the BulbHead Inventors Day for Aspiring Entrepreneurs,Ěýgenerously funded by AJ Khubani, founder of TeleBrands and BulbHead.

How Montclair State has placed every year of the UPitchNJ contest:

2019:
First: Stevens
Second: Rutgers
Third: Montclair State (TacOp)
Best Early-Stage Startup:ĚýPrinceton
Audience Choice Award: Seton Hall

2018:
First: Rutgers
Second: NJIT
Third: Montclair State (NeatSweeps)
Best Early-Stage Startup:ĚýRiderĚýUniversity
Audience Choice Award:ĚýMontclair State (NeatSweeps)

2017:
First: Rutgers
Second: Princeton
Third: Seton Hall
Best Early Stage Startup: Montclair State (Elaion)
Audience Choice: FDU

2016:
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Second: Seton Hall
Third: Montclair State (Karuda)

The contest is generously funded by alumnus AJ Khubani, founder and CEO of .

The three winning teams, with the finals judges.

The winning teams were:

First place for $50,000: Wheatpaste, a community engagement app, with George Garcia, a senior Entrepreneurship major; Matthew Szot, a senior Applied Nutrition major and ; and Jacob Gilbert, a junior Psychology major and .

Second place for $20,000: Eatree, makers of a vegetarian burger with sights on launching a healthy fast-food chain, with Visual Communication Design majors Lauren Wisnewski, a senior, and junior Sarah DiPirro; Visual Arts junior Lauren Green; and Bailey Capra, junior Exercise Science major.

Third place for $10,000: Culture, a clothing company that will create opportunities for the workers making the garments, with Kent Daniel, a senior Management major, and Sasha Mejia-Rivas, junior Fine Arts, Photography major. Both students are pursuing the .

At each prize level, team members will share 20 percent of the award, with the remaining 80 percent to be invested in the startup venture under the coaching of the .

View from the contest’s finals.

Read about the BulbHead contest in stories by and Montclair State and the university’s magazine.

The judges for the contest were:

FINALS:
, founder and CEO of BulbHead.com
, founder and CEO of Wales Capital
, president and CEO, Phoenix Marketing Solutions
, director of Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship

The finals judges from left: Dennis Bone, Kim Wales, Tracy Doyle and AJ Khubani.

SEMI-FINALS:
, cofounder of MedPro Wellness
, founder and CEO of Lightbridge Franchise Company
, owner of Kika Stretch Studios
, angel investor and founder of Giant Media

Semi-finals judges from left: Guy Falzarano, Hakika DuBose, Clark Lagemann and David Segura.

The contest’s master of ceremonies was Anthony “Sully” Sullivan, pitchman for OxiClean and more.

The event’s MC, Anthony “Sully” Sullivan, pitchman for OxiClean, asks a question during the contest.

For updates on the contest, and info how to participate in the future, visit our pitch competition page.

Sirawar Matin, a sophomore Athletic Training major, and Iffat Siddiqi, a junior Computer Science major, won third place in the contest with a $500 prize. Their team was NeatSweeps, and they invented specialized slippers that use augmented reality and interactive games to entice children to move more.

Matin and Siddiqi, who are EOF Scholars at the university, also won the Audience Choice Award, which included a $100 gift card. The students were taught and mentored by as they completed the Feliciano Center’s .

Montclair State is the only school to win a prize every year in the contest.

Watch NeatSweeps, and 13 other Montclair State teams, compete for $80,000 in prizes on May 2 in Montclair State’s fifth annual pitch contest, the , generously funded by AJ Khubani, founder of TeleBrands and BulbHead.

Iffat Siddiqi explains NeatSweeps to the UPitchNJ judges.

Winning the first-place $2,000 prize, which was sponsored by PNC Bank, was Rutgers’ team, LivingWaters. The second-place winner for $1,000 was League of Lifeguards, NJIT’s team. The Best Early-Stage Startup award, for $1,000, went to Dowie Corp, a team from Rider University.

The event was held April 20 at ĚÇĐÄvlog. Princeton and Rutgers universities hosted the contest in prior years.

The competition is sponsored by the New Jersey Collegiate Entrepreneurship Consortium, which represents the entrepreneurship education programs at New Jersey’s four-year colleges and universities. Fourteen universities competed in the third annual competition: Drew University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Monmouth University, ĚÇĐÄvlog,ĚýNew Jersey Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Ramapo College, Rider University, Rowan University, Rutgers University, Saint Peter’s University, Seton Hall University, Stevens Institute of Technology, and William Paterson University.

Sirawar Matin holds a prototype of the slippers during their pitch.

Judging the students’ pitches were: , founder & CEO of InCharged; , CEO of Futurestay; , founder & CEO of latinoTech; , tax partner at EY; and , editor-at-large at Inc.com.

, managing partner, Newark Venture Partners, delivered opening remarks, after Dennis Bone, director of the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship at Montclair State, and , director of Seton Hall’s entrepreneurship center, welcomed the crowd.

“UPitchNJ showcases the best and brightest young entrepreneurs from all over the Garden State,” said Bone. “When a company decides to relocate to New Jersey or remain in the state, one of their top criteria is the Garden State’s well-educated workforce, especially people who possess innovative problem-solving skills. These students are excellent examples of that.”

Each university sent a student team that has launched a startup or a new venture in development to compete for the prizes. Student teams were judged on the innovativeness and originality of their startup idea, and the quality of a written executive summary and oral presentations. The contest judges also looked for creative and innovative thinking about markets, products and services. The teams were evaluated on their perceived ability to execute the idea and turn it into a viable, profitable business, and/or venture with significant social value.

The competition’s aim is to highlight the ingenuity and creativity of today’s college entrepreneurs, whom are increasingly launching businesses from their dorm rooms. The contest also gives the entrepreneurial students the opportunity to network with other students, mentors and potential investors.

Many of the student teams, the judges, and the organizers gather on stage after the contest.

The prizes included coaching sessions, as well as cash:

First place (sponsored by PNC Bank): $2,000 award plusĚýCoaching Session with Mario Casabona, founder, TechLaunch; Coaching Session with David Sorin, McCarter & English.

SecondĚýplace: $1,000 plus Coaching Session with the NJ Innovation Institute at NJIT; Coaching Session with NJ Tech Council.

Third place: $500 plus Coaching Session with entrepreneur David Stengle, Startup Grind.

Best Early-Stage Startup:Ěý$1,000 PlusĚýCoaching Session with entrepreneur Greg Olsen, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Princeton University. This prize is for an innovative idea that is in an earlier stage of development.

Audience Choice Award: $100 gift card.

Besides the sponsorship of first-place prize, the event’s other supporters include , , , , , , , and .

$80,000 in prize money will be won by Montclair State students in the university’s annual student pitch contest.

The prize pool has increased substantially for the 2018 contest, the BulbHead.com Inventors Day for Aspiring Entrepreneurs, generously funded by alumnus AJ Khubani, CEO of BulbHead.com. In 2017, the contest had one prize of $10,000. For the 2018 contest, the $80,000 will be split among three prizes: first = $50,000; second = $20,000; third = $10,000. At each prize level, 20 percent of the award goes directly to the student team members and the remaining 80 percent must be invested in the startup venture under the coaching of the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship.

The $80,000 prize pool makes Montclair State’s competition the largest collegiate pitch contest in New Jersey.Ěý(Next largest annual prize pots are $50K at TCNJ, $45K at Rutgers and $30K at Princeton).

The contest is open to all Montclair State students.

Students can learn more about the $80K contest, including how to enter, at a special event onĚýWed. Dec. 6 at noonĚýin room 140 of Feliciano School of Business building. Free pizza will be served.

The two student winners of the 2017 contest with AJ Khubani, right, and Sully Sullivan, left

Anne Murray, director of development at the Feliciano School of Business, said the event was a valuable experience for the students.

“Attending the Leading Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners Recognition event last night provided a great networking opportunity for students to meet successful, established entrepreneurs and business leaders who could share their experiences, provide insights into successful business practices and serve as mentors for our students and recent graduates,” Murray said.

As each entrepreneur was honored, a video created by Socialfix Media was shown highlighting the woman’s accomplishments. Landers said she was inspired by the videos, which included motivational quotes from each honoree about what makes each of them unstoppable. “The quote that stood out to me most, ‘I am unapologetically a dreamer,’ from Vonda McPherson of Vonda’s Kitchen,” Landers said.

What a cliche title, right? It is really difficult to put experiences into words. It’s even more difficult to understand experiences that one has yet to undergo. It is a concept that struck me quite quickly the moment I touched down in Europe for a program called the . This program is a 3-week accelerator for startups and is geared primarily toward college students, but open to anyone who can attend. From the very start in Milan, where I first landed, I was tested in every way I didn’t think I could be. I wasn’t mentally prepared to be out on my own in the way that I was in a different part of the world. The situations I found myself in quickly changed my perspective and my decision making. Within the first few days my travel partner Altarik Banks, and I, found ourselves stuck without a place to stay and a rather large load of personal items and clothes. Let it be said that this part of the trip was not affiliated with the school as Altarik and I decided to go to Europe a few days early to, as we called it, “get lost.” We were living in hostels until we reached Nice, where a sponsored residence became our home for the duration of our stay. We had no idea where we would end up or how we would sleep that night. This was the first of many tests. And sure enough, it was a test that changed my “under pressure” skills. I’d like to thank David Bowie and Freddie Mercury for forever allowing me to sing those two words in my head whenever they are mentioned. One of the greatest parts about this entire trip are what I called the “tiny miracles.” These situations were the ones where I knew I was going to be okay, no matter what I was enduring. The very first night in Nice I decided it was okay to drink an entire bottle of wine by myself… Lesson learned. The next day, I needed to be able to rapidly communicate with about 400 people in three hours. I don’t believe I have ever had a better poker face. In both the Milan situation, and this scenario of 400 people meeting each other, I found tiny miracles that taught me how to handle myself at my worst.

The next few tiny miracles came in the friends that I made. Truthfully, they are anything but tiny. These friends of mine are people that I learned to trust quicker than my own cat (he loves to be scratched and petted until he doesn’t love it anymore). I learned that I could count on them during the best times and the worst times. We quickly learned just how bad it would get. But yet again, more tiny miracles. I met a group of people who taught me how to work in a business setting with different cultures. I learned how to argue respectably with fellow partners. I learned how to order food in French from the three Frenchmen on my startup team. Oh, and I did learn how to actually start a business which is the whole point of the trip… I’ll get to that part soon.

I learned that not every country in Europe (only the British of course) drive on the left side of the road. This was a little disappointing to me as I am always fascinated by the sheer barbaric nature of not driving on the right side of the road. I learned how to root for a country that I didn’t expect to treat me as hospitably, as France did. So far all I have written are the lessons I’ve learned. Yet, it’s the lessons that become the big takeaway in all of this. The majority of content that EIA taught was related quite strongly to what ĚÇĐÄvlog teaches with their Entrepreneurship courses. Both programs believe in Steve Blank and his ability to teach startups. Both used the Lean Model Canvas and stressed that it is a good path to find the solution. The solution is surely the only thing that is truly important to a startup. Although I didn’t need to leave the country to understand that, it certainly helps to have reinforcement from a place so unfamiliar as France. Fifteen days surely is not enough to get a company off the ground, but it is enough to go more in-depth than any single class could do. One of the things I will tell students until the day I die is that if they wanted to learn entrepreneurship without the classroom but still having the teacher guidance, EIA is the answer. I believe all Feliciano Center Entrepreneurs, young and old, should attend this program. In terms of understanding the lifestyle that belongs to startups and companies, the real world glimpses from people who have done it are unparalleled. Of course, let’s not take away from the teachers at Montclair State who have done it also. But really, who listens to their teacher the first time they say something important?

One of the hardest things I have been asked to do for this entire trip is to put it into words. I could talk for hours, and probably write a novel on every experience I shared in Europe. I learned what it meant to be a survivor, surrounded by survivors, after being in Nice during an attack where a man drove a truck through the beach promenade, killing over 80 people, including three from the EIA program. Although my experiences are different from those who were physically on the beach, Bastille Day will forever ring in my mind as the day my life was impacted in a way I did not know possible at the time. I watched people fall and pick themselves back up. I saw blood where blood shouldn’t be, but that didn’t stop the brave from jumping in to help. I saw tears and changes in people I never thought I’d see. But again, there managed to be another miracle. Maybe the largest of all was the sight of seeing people destroyed by hate, and managing to stand back up, stronger than ever. There were people that night who jumped forward without a second thought to do anything they possibly could to console the distraught. I’ve never physically seen anything like that before. I now have a family that spans the entire world, and no amount of hate could change that.

As humans, we have certain instincts that prevent life from being the same monotonous pattern of nothing. We are instinctively travelers, eaters, romancers, etc. I found out why France is a romance city. I learned that France is a huge sponsor of pizza and kebab (so much so that I don’t believe I’ll taste kebab as good as I did over there). The biggest aspect of all that I learned was that through and through I am a traveler. I was put here to understand the world in the way that the world wants me to understand it. I’ve come back to New Jersey with a new mindset and outlook. I find a lesson (and a tiny miracle) in everything that I do. I find that I am a stronger person, and perhaps someday, a strong leader. I find that I am no longer the child I was before I left, but a man set out to learn what it means to live in this world, for this world.

I want to thank every single staff member in the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship who did all they could to send me on this trip. I want to thank Profs. Jason Frasca and Iain Kerr, for believing in me and for pushing to send me to Europe, even when I didn’t believe I could do it. I want to thank my family for having the faith and pride in me that I needed to learn. Most of all, I want to thank the man from France who has no idea just how much he changed my life with a single word – Introspection.

Josh Miller is a senior Management major who has obtained the Feliciano Center’s Certificate of Entrepreneurship and is now pursuing the Center’s 3D Printing Certificate in Digitally Mediated Innovation Design.

During the summer of 2016, I participated in the , a 3-week digital startup accelerator in Nice, France, primarily for college students. Participating in the program has left a stamp on my heart.

First, I’d like to extend condolences to the lives lost in the Bastille Day tragedy when more than 80 people were killed, including three participants from the program, when a man drove a truck through a crowd watching fireworks along Nice’s beach promenade.

On another note I must say that Nice is such a beautiful city. ĚýThe EIA program was basically a digital technology accelerator with the goal of each student team having 1k customers before the finish. You had to work on an idea with a group of five students all with different backgrounds/roles such as business, marketing, UX/UI design, and comp sci.

I’d like to say that the program challenged me in many ways. I will start with the first day, a speed networking event amongst 400 participants. You pretty much had to pitch and mingle your idea to participants, with 200 people having ideas. We all know that entrepreneurs have a love for their ideas, just as a mother to her child. My idea was ETHIWEAR – a marketplace for affordable and sustainable clothing made by responsible brands. It’s a very sticky situation trying to enlighten someone why they should join you on your idea, not join someone else, and maybe them having to drop their very own idea. After the second day I almost was ready to take the backseat and join someone else on their idea. I honestly didn’t think that I was going to form a team.

On the way home, at the end of the second day, I was spilling out my frustration to , another participant from Montclair State. During our discussion I discovered a “hack,” basically everyone was spending time going after computer programmers, they were in high demand. The beauty of my idea was that I didn’t really need a programmer. ĚýFinally, it wasn’t until the last hour on the third day of networking that I formed my team. I must say that it was a great accomplishment and relief. I could finally breathe again.

Even though I am not necessarily a “programmer,” for my idea, ETHIWEAR, I took on a developer role because I knew I could make it work. By needing an online marketplace for my idea, it was easy to create. Essentially anyone can create a website nowadays with online tools such as Wix and Squarespace, it can easily be done with no coding knowledge. I was not creating an app like a lot of the other teams. I also think that an app developer isn’t needed in the very first stages of an “application” idea. I believe that prototyping, user testing and feedback should be done well before the app starts to be programmed but more on that another time.

My idea ETHIWEAR was allowing your ordinary consumer to afford environmentally and ethically sourced clothing from responsible brands. We were providing a marketplace that allowed our customer to purchase clothing with various finance options such as leasing to own (MUD Jeans) or renting (Rent the Runway model). The inspiration behind the idea was essentially to disrupt fast fashion—or clothing priced so low it can be considered disposable—which is the second most polluting industry on the planet with oil being first. It was basically a revolution of its own. The veil behind fast fashion is often silent and unspoken. Little do people know it is a very ugly business with so many toxins and waste to the environment, all made with sweatshop labor from workers getting paid unlivable wages in emerging countries.

Another aspect of the program I enjoyed was the diversity, with participants from all over the globe from different cultures, backgrounds and races, but surprisingly not many French. In the emerging global economy being able to interact and understand other backgrounds is a necessary skill. Being able to interact and work with others from diverse backgrounds challenges you and makes you stronger as a person. Even though we all share planet earth, we all live in different “worlds” that we navigate and experience on the daily basis. I thought that the diversity was a pivotal part of the program.

I can ramble on and on but this experience of studying in Nice, France has changed me in many ways that I cannot explain. I would like to thank the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship and the for helping make this trip possible.

Altarik Banks is a junior Economics major who has obtained the Feliciano Center’s Certificate of Entrepreneurship and is now pursuing the Center’s 3D Printing Certificate in Digitally Mediated Innovation Design.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen next,” said Tasnim Quayum, 14. “Most of our (high school) classes are planned out, but here we were surprised about what was going to happen next.”

Quayum, a sophomore, was one of 14 students at Montclair High School who took the 3D printing course with professors Iain Kerr and Jason Frasca. The students met for two hours each day as part of “an exploration to create new things, ideas, and novel paradigms the world has never seen before,” said Kerr. While the course description would have contained phrases about 3D printing and design thinking, there were deeper lessons being taught.

“The most important thing this course teaches us it to think in a way we don’t usually,” said Tegh Johar, 16, a junior, noting the instructors taught the students to “explore all the possibilities.”

Maya Joyce, a sophomore, liked how the students got to “mess around” with stuff as they learned to be more creative.

“Creativity didn’t come from ideas,” said Joyce, 15, who said what she learned could be applied to her love of music. “It’s more about doing, than thinking.”

One of the things the students did was create soap dishes. Then they needed to transform those creations into furniture. “To innovate you must start with something ordinary, such as a soap dish,” said Frasca, explaining the approach used in the class. “Then try to reveal all you can about the object. Think about why it was made, its purpose, aesthetics, etc. Then take what you learned about the object and block it. Ignore everything you learned about the object in order to create something new.”

Catie Stanton, 15, said the class helped her to see things differently. “We’re doing random, crazy stuff,” the sophomore said.

Joshua Rapoport, a 16-year-old junior, said the course gave him a new perspective on a so-called “good idea.”

“I was very surprised we were not supposed to have good ideas,” said Rapoport. “They’re irrelevant because they’ve almost certainly been thought of before.”

The students credited Kerr and Frasca with opening up their minds, as well as showing them how to design things with the 3D printers.

“(They) really taught us a new way of thinking. We discovered new paradigms and stuff—we learned what a paradigm was,” said Aneekah Uddin, 15, a sophomore. “I really enjoyed it.”