Nick Eberhardt, an MBA student at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, began working with Sugarwitch co-founder Sophie Moss (right) as an undergraduate in UMSL’s recently expanded Anchor Accelerator internship program. (Photos by Derik Holtmann)

Whether it’s a sweltering summer afternoon or a crisp autumn evening, chances are you’ll find a line out the door at Sugarwitch.

St. Louisans looking to satisfy their sweet tooth flock to the charming shop in the Carondelet neighborhood for artisanal frozen treats, including ice cream sandwiches named after pop culture’s favorite witches and a curated coffee and pastry menu. Over the past three years, the shop has done brisk business thanks to the demand for its enchanting confections.

When Nick Eberhardt, then a senior at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, stepped foot into the shop last spring, he saw why the business was having trouble keeping up with demand for its wildly popular ice cream sandwiches.

“One of their problems was production capacity,” he recalls. “They weren’t able to produce as much as they could. They were running out of product every week. When I first walked in there and saw they were hand-cutting these ice cream sandwiches, I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ There has got to be an easier solution.”

Eberhardt started working with Sugarwitch co-founder Sophie Moss as part of the UMSL Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center’s recently expanded Anchor Accelerator internship program. Not only did Eberhardt earn three credit hours during the 2025 spring semester, but he also gained hands-on experience dealing with the challenges of running a growing business. He even facilitated a solution to one of the shop’s biggest hurdles.

Moss was well aware of the limitations of hand-slicing the sandwiches. She knew a mechanized slicing machine would be more efficient, easier on employees’ bodies and more consistent. That said, finding such a specialized piece of equipment was easier said than done.

“We didn’t have any idea what that machine would look like, what it would cost or how to access it,” she says. “But we knew that’s what we needed.”

Eberhardt, however, had a solution. During the previous semester, he competed in the 2024 Student Concept Competition and worked with Pat Upchurch, founder of Patty’s Cheesecakes, to hone his pitch. Upchurch used a slicer for her desserts, so Eberhardt connected the two business owners. That meeting turned a wish-list item into reality and an investment in Sugarwitch’s future.

Students are frequently exposed to this kind of real-world problem-solving and networking in the expanded Anchor Accelerator internship program. It’s exactly what Scott Morris, director of the EIC, had in mind when he moved to create a more structured, immersive experience for UMSL students.

***

The 2025 Anchor Accelerator was comprised of 13 local businesses and their founders, including Moss and Sugarwitch. Student internships were available during previous iterations, but the expanded program implemented last spring is more systematic. Each founder is paired with one to two UMSL students and one to two mentors who are established business owners.

As part of the revamped program, the teams meet once a week on campus from 6 to 9 p.m. The classroom portion covers modules on five key entrepreneurial concepts: strategy and culture, commercial excellence, operational excellence, entrepreneurial finance and ownership objectives. The founders earn an Entrepreneurship Certificate through the Ed G. Smith College of Business, while students take the capstone course for credit – Entrepreneurship 4100 or Marketing 5795 – or participate as a paid intern.

Morris says changes to the fifth cohort of the Anchor Accelerator were motivated by a pulse survey of past participants as well as an audit of the current business landscape. The reevaluation resulted in shifting the focus of the accelerator from start-ups to more established businesses truly attempting to scale their operations. The goal, he says, is to turn founders into effective CEOs.

At the same time, Morris sought to respond to the region’s workforce development needs and give UMSL Business students the tools and experience they need to enter the labor market after graduation.

“I read an article that said 60% of local employers would not hire new graduates because they lacked real-world experience,” Morris explains. “That’s something that we had been talking about since I’ve been here.”

It was a problem Morris believed UMSL could help solve.

***

Eberhardt, Clayton Bruce and Lauren Jordan were three of 23 students to participate in the expanded Anchor Accelerator internship program during the 2025 spring semester. Each had a unique path to studying business and participating in the program.

After a hiatus from school, Eberhardt was finishing his BSBA at UMSL. He already had experience in business as an office manager, but he was intrigued by the unique opportunity to see the founders’ challenges firsthand. Bruce is working toward an MBA and has been collecting as much experience as possible before graduating, including internships with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and Washington University in St. Louis. Jordan worked in the service industry before earning her esthetician license and starting her own skin-care business, Lo Jordan Esthetics. She was determined to finish her BSBA and wanted to see what lessons she could apply to her own venture.

The students worked with the founders in a variety of capacities. At Sugarwitch, Eberhardt worked on big-picture projects, but he also rolled up his sleeves to make ice cream sandwiches every other week.

“I was helping them strategize on how to expand, whether that be focusing on their B-to-B or B-to-C business,” Eberhardt says. “They have a lot of customers that walk in, but they also have different dining accounts with universities. We were strategizing what different areas of St. Louis could we go into, because they’re already in Washington University dining. We were also looking for other areas – St. Charles or possibly Columbia.”

Nick Eberhardt and Sophie Moss prepare to use the slicing machine.

Meanwhile, at Bella’s Pet Products, Bruce surveyed the market competition and developed pitches for potential investors.

“I think the big key in business is finding your niche,” Bruce says. “Your niche is what allows you to sell yourself and stand out amongst your competitors. So, you have to learn the landscape. That was my big thing, seeing what the big-name brands – Petco and PetSmart – and the little guys – Treats Unleashed – are doing and figuring out what Bella’s Pet Products could do.”

One of the most important things Bruce learned was the ability to be adaptable to everchanging business conditions and challenges. “You may not have everything at your disposal, so you have to learn how to think on the fly,” he adds.

Aside from a first-row seat to the ins and outs of entrepreneurship, the students benefited from networking with the founders and mentors. Jordan worked with Brianna DeVault at Truly Melanin, but through the weekly classes, she also met other business owners who taught her the value of search engine optimization and how to improve Lo Jordan Esthetics’ website and online presence.

“It made me revamp my own business plan and how I want to grow it,” Jordan says. “It made me put the steps in place.”

The weekly courses also opened the students’ eyes to the realities of launching and sustaining a business. Bruce and Jordan say lectures on the legal and economic intricacies of entrepreneurship were particularly illuminating.

But the founders also learned from interacting with the interns. Even the most driven business owner needs help from time to time, and the internship program forces founders to delegate tasks to the UMSL students and to consider outside perspectives. Moss says it was incredibly valuable to have someone else to brainstorm with and consider the big picture. That was evident in acquiring the mechanized slicer for the shop. Moss secured a $20,000 capital injection with entry into the Anchor Accelerator, which provided the means to invest in the vital equipment upgrade. But it was Eberhardt’s input that helped make it happen.

“Nick remembered that Pat was using a slicing machine that sounded similar to what we needed,” Moss says. “So, he connected me with Pat, who then showed me her machine and connected us with the company that she bought it from. That’s how we got our machine. That was absolutely instrumental in this chain of accelerator resources.”

Morris notes that the expanded program deliberately fosters that collaborative environment to turn founders into CEOs.

“One of the things that we see with almost all of the businesses that come through is that the founder is trying to do everything by themselves,” Morris says. “They’re flying at 20 feet off the ground, and they need to be at 20,000 feet off the ground.”

***

Morris hopes the UMSL students who go through the Anchor Accelerator internship program are inspired to be “agents of change” who have the skills, mindset and courage to say, “There’s a better way.” That could be within their own business or with another organization.

“I really hope that they do some self-discovery,” Morris says. “In this process, they’re going to get exposed to all different aspects of business. I hope they really resonate with a particular area.”

The program certainly made an impact on Eberhardt. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree this summer, he decided to further his education at UMSL by pursuing an MBA. He’s also taking part in the program again this semester as a paid intern. He hopes others will take advantage of the truly transformative experience.

“I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to go into a business field because you get to see everything,” Eberhardt says. “I was looking at finances, scheduling employees. I think it’s something that every business student could benefit from.”

This story was originally published in the fall 2025 issue of UMSL Magazine. If you have a story idea for UMSL Magazine, email magazine@umsl.edu.