BY RAEGAN NEUFELD
Created in 2015 through the Fort Hays State Center for Entrepreneurship, the Faulkner Challenge is an annual competition intended to inspire entrepreneurship throughout western Kansas. In charge of the challenge are Rick Edgeman, Henry Schwaller, and Kunal Sevak, who all teach in the Department of Management. Schwaller is a co-creator of the challenge, and Edgeman also serves as the interim director of the Center for Entrepreneurship.
Much like Kansas Startup, which Schwaller facilitates and organizes, the Faulkner Challenge is an opportunity for students to pitch business ideas to judges, receive feedback, and gain beneficial experience. There is also a total of $10,000 in prize money, of which $6,000 will go to first place, $3,000 will go to second place, and $1,000 will go to third place.
“It builds on the work that Kunal does in the classroom, that I do in the classroom, and also builds on Kansas Startup, our fall event, and it’s a much deeper dive on how to start a business,” Schwaller said. “It was something that other universities were doing. When we saw it happening at Emporia [State] and Pittsburg State we knew it was something that was important here. We thought it was really important to give our students another opportunity to exercise their entrepreneurial thinking in a bigger-stakes environment.”
For the Faulkner Challenge, participants have a month to send in a short business plan and then eight plans are chosen to move on to the finals.
“The submissions are open right now online, from February 4th to March 4th,” Edgeman said. “By the 11th of March we pick the final eight and they make a presentation. Based on those, about a month later we’ll have the final three who will present.”
At this moment, the competition is open to all students at Fort Hays, as well as those from other colleges and from high schools. However, in the future entries will be limited to just college students.
“A new direction that we’re taking with it is offering it for credit,” Sevak said. “Students can actually make progress towards their degree while participating in both Kansas Startup and the Faulkner Challenge.”
Sevak added that this is a great opportunity for students to network and put their skills to use. Edgeman also mentioned the expert feedback that participants receive as another benefit of the challenge.
“Entrepreneurship inherently is experiential, you learn by doing,” Sevak said. “So in addition to learning all the theories and concepts in class, it’s very necessary and important for students to put some of their skill sets to use. What better way to test their ideas than in a competitive setting such as this? They not only show what they know and learn from others, but also grow as a community of like-minded people.”
Edgeman, Sevak, and Schwaller also spoke about why inspiring entrepreneurship is important.
“I think most of us have some sort of a creative orientation that we want to be able to exercise,” Edgeman said. “We all have that creative and innovative side, and I think there are a lot of people who need that juice to flow just to feel alive.”
“It’s the most basic need of humans to aspire to achieve something,” Schwaller added. “While it does have monetary compensation, you can use entrepreneurship in your community, in your church, or in a non-profit setting. Entrepreneurship is everywhere. It’s simply creative problem-solving. What we’re trying to do is empower our students to do better for themselves and for their communities.”
Sevak talked about the effect entrepreneurship has on the country as a whole.
“It’s the entrepreneurs that built this nation,” he said. “Because we look at entrepreneurship strictly from the business side, we oftentimes forget that it’s more about problem-solving. It has no roots in business actually. So if you think about the history of the United States, it’s the entrepreneurship process all along that’s brought us this far. I think we should be doing even more in terms of stimulating the creative skills and imaginative tendencies of young students because they’re the future leaders of America.”
Business plans can be submitted to faulknerchallenge@fhsu.edu until March 4th. For more information, visit https://www.fhsu.edu/cob/faulkner-challenge/.