UI Theatre student and grads are awarded elevator pitch funding

December 8, 2011

UI Theatre student Maggie Blake and Spring 2011 UI Theatre graduates Maggie Jones and Theresa Augsburger have been awarded a $1,000 business development prize for their new Osage (Iowa) Summer Theatre Program. The prize was awarded this month by the UI’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC) through its bi-annual Rose Francis Foundation Elevator Pitch Competition.

In Summer 2011, Blake, Jones, and Augsberger began the Osage Summer Theatre Program for K-12 students in and around the town of Osage in north central Iowa. Over the summer, the three entrepreneurs taught classes and ended each two-week session with a fully realized performance the entire community was invited to attend. Blake reported, “Our first summer season was met with overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community. Not only did we have several parents and students welcome the performing arts as a fresh alternative to sports, but over 20% of the Osage community attended our performances.”

This fall, the team pitched this program to the Elevator Pitch competition where again, as Blake puts it, “We were met with overwhelming support. We received a check for $1,000 to go towards our marketing and advertising for the summer of 2012. We can't wait to work with the kids again next summer!”

Sponsored by David and Monica Nassif, the Rose Francis Foundation Elevator Pitch Competition gives any University of Iowa undergraduate student the opportunity to pitch his or her business idea to a panel of judges to win up to $2,500. Students present a two-minute pitch and have up to five minutes of Q&A. The John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center is a unique partnership within The University of Iowa among the Henry B. Tippie College of Business, College of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and University of Iowa Health Sciences. JPEC was founded in 1996 through a generous gift from John and Mary Pappajohn of Des Moines, Iowa.

In April 2011, the trio was awarded $2,500 as seed money for the proposed summer theatre program from the Osage City Council. http://globegazette.com/news/local/article_ecf03c72-72d3-11e0-8dc6-001cc4c03286.html