Cheyney University News April 23, 2015 Hank Thomas Presents / Urban Oasis Team Wins 2015 Annual Business Plan Competition Cheyney University's Entrepreneurial Leadership Center (ELC) hosted the Annual Business Plan Competition Awards Ceremony on April 22 in the Marian Anderson Music Center. Entrepreneur, civil rights activist and historian, Hank Thomas, gave the keynote address. Thomas was welcomed by an enthusiastic audience and decorated with a Cheyney University lapel pin by Interim Cheyney President Dr. Frank G. Pogue. Born in 1941, Thomas grew up in St. Augustine, Florida. He received a scholarship to Howard University where in 1960 he became a student arm of the civil rights movement as a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee(SNCC). In 1961, he became one of the first Freedom Riders who rode buses in the South to test changes in the civil rights law. He served as a medic in the Vietnam War and was awarded a Purple Heart and five additional wartime medals. While recovering from those injuries at Walter Reed Hospital, Thomas overheard other soldiers planning their futures and was inspired to become a business owner. Thomas' enterprise began with the purchase of a laundromat and a derelict Dairy Queen in a poor neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia. Since then, his holdings have multiplied as he added Marriott Fairfield Residence Inns, McDonalds, Burger King and Wishbone Fried Chicken restaurants to his portfolio. In his talk at Cheyney, Thomas emphasized customer service and good fiscal management as the most important qualities a business owner should have. Taking first place in the competition were seniors Terrell Grayson and Jonathan Cooper, founders of Neighborhood Oasis, LLC, a forward-thinking business located in industrial greenhouses. specializing in the year-round production of fresh and natural produce. Other prizewinners included second place, Michelle Windham, founder of 24/7 Child Care Heaven, third place, Ebony Flecha, founder of Just Because Jewelry, fourth place, Rhonda Parham, founder of Pink Sprinkles, and fifth place to Dymund Coles, founder of Miayre Studios. Chanda Showell, a Cheyney University Junior and Treasurer of the Cheyney Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO), served as emcee. Cheyney University staff members served as competition judges including Kenyon Holley, Director of Diverse Business Supportive Services Center; Marcia Robinson, Assistant Director, Human Resources; Mae Stephens, Assistant Director, Economic and Workforce Development Center; and Ivan Turnipseed, Ph. D., Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Hospitality & Recreation Management. ELC staff includes Executive Director Sharon Cannon and Project Development Coordinator Reginald Whiteside. Cheyney is a member of CEO, a national organization comprised of 245 college and University chapters. The goal of CEO is to inform, support and inspire college students to be entrepreneurial and seek opportunity through Enterprise creation. Cheyney's chapter was initiated in 2012. Its officers are Dymund Coles, president; Terrell Grayson, vice president; Johnathan Cooper, secretary; and Chanda Showell, treasurer. Other members include Ebony Flecha, Rhonda Parham and Michelle Windham. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.