With her Try It Fund grant, Heidi has created a podcast to aid students in the sometimes overwhelming and confusing job-seach process. Highlighting career options, talking with people in the field, and defining sometimes vague descriptions or terms, Heidi’s podcast can help Davidson students and students beyond Davidson.
Heidi recently received funds from the Avinger Impact Fund, which will push her podcast even further.
Breanna is planning on bringing some pizzazz to the Lake Norman Area with her venture. Breanna is aiming to start a party entertainment business, focusing first on birthday parties for young children.
Her services willtake the stress off the parents and plan an hour-long event, with character meet and greets, sing-alongs, and general celebrations. Eventually, Breanna aims to create a “party in a box” product allowing parents to rent party supplies for a do-it-yourself flair.
Having gone to a summer camp as a kid and worked at camp as a counselor, Constantine knows the challenges of scheduling camper activities within a camp session. Constantine’s venture will work to create an algorithm/program that will convert camper activity preferences into daily schedules.
Constantine’s venture has advanced significantly over the past few months and also just received funds from the Avinger Impact Fund.
Bimal has devoted most of his life to visual and performing arts. With consistent practice and persistence, Bimal is ready to take his artistic skills to the business world. With funds from the Try It Fund, Bimal will target businesses, offices, stores, and art lovers and offer his artistic skills to decorate their spaces.
After a few commissions, Bimal hopes to partner with online art companies or platforms to gain a wider audience, and maybe even partner with other college artists to grow his business.
In D’Mycal’s words, OneDream Studios will be “a stepping stone for student actors and a boost for small companies.” OneDream Studios will create promotional videos for small businesses, employ student actors, and then post these videos on various social media platforms.
D’Mycal plans to use his Try It Funds to buy equipment for video production and editing, and in the meantime, plans to learn more about video marketing techniques.
Established in honor of Robert L. Avinger, Jr., the Avinger Impact Fund fuels the vision, qualities, and passions of an innovator, giving evidence of creativity, energy, and initiative that will lead to success in future endeavors. Through project-based grants, the Avinger Impact Fund awards up to $10,000 to Davidson entrepreneurs looking to validate and advance their idea.
Constantine Desjardins ’24 is the founder of Direct Camp, a company focused on helping summer camps simplify their general operations by automating administrative processes using custom software. Having been significantly shaped by summer camps as a kid and working at camps growing up, Constantine is passionate about making camp processes as easy as possible for staff members, so they can focus on prioritizing campers instead of stressing about scheduling. After taking a computer science course, Constantine developed his idea and his software and is excited to continue improving this product and creating an integrated software package, aimed at improving camps everywhere.
Tasos Pagounas ’23 and Christos Korumpotis ’23 are international students, with a goal to help people like them in their professional careers. Having traveled 5000 miles from home to pursue opportunities unavailable in their home country, Tasos and Christos describe the problem they’re trying to solve as “the hopelessness that lack of opportunity creates.” Their company, Rise Together, which also won the audience choice award at the 2022 Nisbet Venture Fund Competition, unites young employees and employers, increasing equal opportunity for students and small business employers.
Heidi Meyer ’23, recognizes how difficult it can be to choose a career path, especially in the overwhelming process of networking, job applications, and finishing a college degree. Working to simplify and inform students, Heidi’s venture, Careers Explained, is a podcast that seeks to empower students by giving them insights into all types of careers. Working to increase her listener base and monetize her podcast, Heidi provides educational bite-sized content focused on helping students from all backgrounds optimize their job searching process.
Lily Korir ’23 is from a rural community in Kenya and knows the ins and outs of small-scale farming. Lily’s venture, KK Dairy Solutions, seeks to solve the supply chain challenges many small farmers face by developing a holistic approach to set up a central entity where farmers can access quality and affordable dairy inputs. With 80 farmers and two operational stores, Lily has a close relationship with these entities and is helping create a lasting, sustainable solution for her community. With money from the Avinger Impact Fund, Lily’s venture will acquire and set up a pasteurizing facility to add value to milk before selling it to processing companies, recruit more farmers, and continue to expand marketing to improve the profitability of dairy farming.
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