By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A group of Fort Hays State University students who got to know each other as members of the Tiger track and field squads teamed up for a different competition last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark\nFaber, Faith Little, Ryan Stanley and Anthony Ventura designed \u201cMeHe,\u201d a phone\napp centered on maintaining positive mental health, and won the 2020\nKansas Startup competition with their presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kansas\nStartup \u2013 founded by Henry Schwaller IV, instructor of management at\nFHSU, in 2013 \u2013 was run over a weekend since its beginning. This year the\nevent took place in two parts because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first part\nwas a workshop on Nov. 7 in the Memorial Union, facilitated by Dr.\nRick Edgeman, chair of the Department of Management. The workshop \u2013\nConcept to Customer: A Creative Path to Success! \u2013 focused on\ncreating successful entrepreneurial ideas. The second part took place\na week later, when teamspresented one at a time\nin Dane G. Hansen Entrepreneurship Scholarship Hall, and the judges\nwatched and asked questions via Zoom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schwaller is\none of the major sponsors of the event, along with Commerce Bank of Hays,\nMidwest Energy, NetWorkKansas and Peter Werth, an FHSU alum, for\nwhom FHSU\u2019sWerth College of Science, Technology and Mathematics is named.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nthe past, the experiential, hands-on experience featured students and\ncommunity members who are interested in starting a business or non-profit or\nsolving a community problem and helps guide participants through the\nprocess of generating ideas and refining those ideas into a viable opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s\nparticipants were all FHSU students. The second-place team\u2019s presentation\nwas \u201cTiger Sweets,\u201d Teammates Jade Artzer, a general studies major\nfrom Goodland; Grace Carder, art education major,\nConcordia; Kimberly Stone, English major, Ottawa;\nand Ronald Storrer, business administration major, Hays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nthird-place team of two students from Kansas City, Kan. \u2013 Ethan Fleming\n(finance major) and Rheijan Villegas (information networking and\ntelecommunications) \u2013 developed \u201cISO \u2013 Kinesis kit,\u201d a training\ndevice\/motion tracker for athletes and trainers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although\nthe event took on a different look in 2020, Schwallerwas pleased\nwith the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur\njudges are always pleased with how creative our students are and the innovative\nideas they come up with,\u201d Schwaller said. \u201cThis year, I noticed\nhow compassionate the teams were, that they were all about helping people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Little\n\u2013 a communication major from Holton \u2013 recruited her teammates with\nspecific goals in mind. Stanley is a business major, while Faber and Ventura\nare both pre-med majors. Faber had experience with Kansas Startup as a member\nof last year\u2019s second-place team, and Ventura also is experienced in the\ntechnology of coding and programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Little\nsaid she thought the diversity of her teammates\u2019 backgrounds and majors would\nprove beneficial. The team brainstormed for about two hours before coming up\nwith their idea for the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\nknow that mental health is an issue that is especially relevant now during the\npandemic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\napp concept they developed features a daily mental health survey for\nthe user and a way for them to connect with friends to see how they\nare doing. It includes five questions about mental health indicators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stanley\nsaid another team goal is to provide a better understanding of mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve\nall identified with having friends with mental health issues,\u201d he said. \u201cRight\nnow, people are struggling with isolation while being quarantined because of\nthe virus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Little\nsaid she learned a lot during the preparation for her team\u2019s presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe\nbiggest thing for me was realizing that anyone can see where there are gaps in\nour society, and everyone has the opportunity to take action to help\nthe community,” she said. “Anyone can make a difference.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Little\nand her teammates are excited about building the app to go live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\nwant to be able to help make people\u2019s lives better,\u201d Ventura said. \u201cWe wanted\nto capitalize on overcoming the stigma of mental health issues.\nIt\u2019s really important now with the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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