Scott Morris (left) congratulates the team of Susana Soto-Woods (holding the sign), Vajra Binion and Savannah Rainey after their fundraising presentation on behalf of Patty’s Cheesecakes. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

Varja Binion, a rising eighth grader at Brittany Woods Middle School, stood in front of an assembled group of faculty members from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and other local business leaders at UMSL’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center and launched into her team’s fundraising pitch for Patty’s Cheesecakes.

“For our industry analysis,” she said, “we used Porter’s Five Forces, and out of the five forces, we chose supplier bargaining power, threat of substitute and buyer bargaining power. We chose those three as the most important, and we’ll tell you why.”

And with that, Team Patty’s Cheesecakes – Savannah Rainey and Susana Soto-Woods joined Binion – was off and running. Last Thursday’s presentation was the final step in an immersive six-week program for rising eighth-grade girls, put on in collaboration with Girls Inc. of St. Louis and First Bank. It was held on UMSL’s campus with instruction provided by multiple faculty members in the College of Business Administration.

The Entrepreneurship and Business Program – the first edition of a three-year partnership between Girls Inc. and First Bank – landed at UMSL when Cheryl Jones, the Girls Inc. president, reached out to Perry Drake, the chair of UMSL’s Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Drake has a long track record of supporting the Girls Inc. program, and he immediately recruited Carla Jordan, the director of undergraduate advising and student services for UMSL Business, and Corlia Spears, the recruitment coordinator for UMSL Business, to help create a curriculum and line up speakers and experiences for the students.

During its six-week run, the transformative program generated coverage from the St. Louis Business Journal, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and FOX 2.

The idea behind the final hypothetical project was for three groups of three girls each to create a fundraising presentation – using what they’d learned during the six weeks – for three different companies that have been part of the EIC’s Anchor Accelerator program. In addition to the Patty’s Cheesecakes group, Golden Curtis, Jurnee Duarte and Rain Jones presented on behalf of Bold Spoon Creamery and Tori Clement, Sierrah Elick and Sapar Jones represented Posie Pots.

The groups were tasked with showing why the businesses would benefit from an investment of $100,000 and how they would use the money if they were selected.

“It definitely got me out of my comfort zone, helped me get used to public speaking,” Binion told UMSL Daily. “I wanted to make it fun, but interactive so our audience could be into what we were saying. I really wanted it to make people happy, be a good presentation.”

Faculty members in attendance served as judges for the event, which was hosted by Scott Morris, director of the EIC, who helped prepare the teams for the presentation.

“Ladies, the comments on the score sheets were unbelievable,” Morris told the teams before announcing the results. “You did an amazing job, and each team got at least some first-place votes, some second-place votes and some third-place votes. It was a really close competition.”

The trio of Binion, Soto-Woods and Rainey took first place, which included EIC items and a surprise $100 prize; the cash was given by an anonymous donor. The second-place team got EIC items and $75 each and the third-place team received EIC items and $50 each.

The students were specifically chosen based on recommendations from their teachers and school principals. Rainey said the level of instruction that they received during the entire course helped them get ready for the presentation.

“It was a great experience in business, just learning more about the business world,” Rainey said. “I’ve never been taught on a college level of learning. At our school, they teach you a lot of stuff, but this was more rigorous and helps us learn better.”

A big part of the program wasn’t just teaching the students business. Pursuant to the Girls Inc. mission, the UMSL Business faculty members wanted to help instill the sense of courage and poise that comes with the acquisition of knowledge. That was well-received.

“I’ve learned so much, I’ve seen so much, and I’m really grateful for it,” said Curtis, who was on Team Bold Spoon. “They help you overcome the nerves. They teach you about confidence and so much more, and after that I didn’t really feel so nervous as before. And it was also great connecting to girls my age who were doing this.”

In addition to Drake, Morris, Jordan and Spears, nearly every faculty member with UMSL Business (and several staff members) pitched in to help, either as an instructor or on a panel or as a judge at the final presentation: Nassar Arshadi, Bindu Arya, Haitao Li, Perry Drake, Thomas Kozloski, Dinesh Mirchandani, Vivek Singh, Johnna Murray, Colleen Mpofu, Jennifer Wen, Michele Meckfessel, Jill Bernard Bracy, Andrea Hupman, Trilce Encarnación, Shakiba Enayati, John Palmer, David Beverly, Marcia Countryman, Joe Rottmann, Renita Miller, Michael Butler and Gerald Gao.

“Our faculty, I just want to say, you’ve been amazing,” Jordan told the audience. “You’ve brought college-level content and material to these wonderful young scholars, and they were able to process it and apply it to their lives and their dreams and have key takeaways every week. It has truly exceeded our expectations. We are smiling from ear to ear.”