Study Away, Matt Valentin, & Griff Allen

 

Current Events 

Hiram College students minoring in Entrepreneurship have the opportunity for a Study Away trip! The trip will take place during the 3-week time period in spring of 2022. During the first half of the trip, students will travel to Cleveland, Youngstown, and Akron and explore the entrepreneurial ecosystem including JumpStart, Youngstown Business Incubator, Bounce Innovation Hub, Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, and the Burton D. Morgan Foundation. The second half, students will travel to Charlotte, NC to explore First Flight Venture, The Launch Factory, Cary Innovation Center, and HQ Raleigh Lithios. 

Seating for the trip is limited. If interested, please email David Strukel at StrukelDM@hiram.edu



Student Spotlight - Matthew Valentin

Matthew Valentin is a senior from Stanford, Connecticut studying Sports Management and Entrepreneurship. Matthew is currently on the lacrosse team and works as a printing technician for the Service Center at Hiram College. Over the summer, Matthew interned as a coach for Force Lacrosse and managed clinics, camps, trainings, and travel teams. He had an amazing time coaching throughout the internship and eventually got hired as a permanent part-time coach. 

Matthew is set to graduate in December of 2021 and has a job opportunity to be the head coach for a high school lacrosse team. In the future, Matthew plans to build a lacrosse franchise in the Warren/Youngstown area because there is a gap in the market for that area. 

Matthew enjoyed his progression through the entrepreneurship minor and made a lot of friends along the way. The minor opened his eyes to doing things differently and helped put his ideas into motion. Overall, Matthew's favorite part about the minor was the IdeaBlitz. 




Mentor Spotlight - Griff Allen

Griff is an extremely successful entrepreneur with a diverse career. He graduated from Boise State University with a Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering degree and went to work in steel production, fluid systems component manufacturing, and investment casting. During this time, Griff developed and patented a fuel-saving clutch mechanism used in heavy trucking. 

Over some time, Griff pivoted his career towards becoming an actor and motorsports broadcaster. He had a strong passion for motorsports and got mentors around him to help his chances of broadcasting motorsport events. Eventually, Griff achieved his goal and was the broadcaster for multiple motorsport events for networks such as ESPN2.

Once again, Griff made a pivot in his career and developed a curriculum of high performing people and sold the program to multiple companies. The program was made to help the companies train and develop their employees to be the best possible version of themselves. 

Eventually, Griff realized that the business was taking away a lot of his personal time. To solve this issue, Griff decided to create a very complex computer automated escape room. He designed the automations to produce amazing results each and every time, which ultimately increased customer satisfaction. 

Griff recommends students looking to become an entrepreneur to build a team because nothing can be accomplished by yourself. You must engage with other people and have them buy into your vision and passion. Griff believes it is very important to engage with generations, genders, and races other that your own. Lastly, Griff recommends that entrepreneurs read the book Falling Forward and understand the value that both introverts and extroverts can bring to a team. 




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