UC ImagineFest Recap 2024
UC Imagine Fest is a 15-hour marathon event where students work together to find innovative and creative solutions for existing problems. During the program, students work to develop their solutions and pitch their final plan to a panel of judges. Our calculated processes assist students to communicate the validity of a problem and offer a creative solution that meets the needs of a reachable market.
UC ImagineFest 2024 Recap
UC Imagine Fest is a 2-day innovation sprint focused on developing solutions to today’s problems. This year’s theme was “The Great Outdoors”, cutting-edge ideas to enhance outdoor experiences and promote adventure in the world around us.
Congratulations to all the students that participated and for their hard work in developing innovative ideas. Dean Davis ’27 took first place with a sustainable idea that turns food waste from Wismer and surrounding colleges into compost. Second place was awarded to Zach Lewis ’28 for Scaley, a fishing tackle box with a built-in scale and measuring tape. Third place went to John Teryan ’28 and Charles DiCiccio ’28 who created an online app to make community groups for outdoor games.
Special mentions go out to Donatas Avellino ’25, Mia Bompensa ’28, Chuck Schlindwein ’28, Gavin Witham ’27, Jordyn Spady ’28, Nathaniel Nerone ’28, Kya Jones ’26, and Andrew Phillips ’25 for all presenting their innovative ideas and striving to enhance the outdoor experience for all.
Students learned the process of ideation, developed their communication skills, and were surprised by the discovery of their entrepreneurial spirits! Chuck Schlindwein ’28 shares, “UC Imagine Fest was a great experience for me. I got useful insights from mentors and learned a lot from my peers. Every pitch was very impressive, and I was glad to be a part of it.” Mia Bompensa ’28 had similar takeaways and stated, “I loved seeing everyone’s innovations because each person had such a unique, clever, and thoughtful idea. It was inspiring to hear each presentation.”
Thank you to everyone that supported our students – Jim Bompensa (Founder and Owner of Body Physics Fitness Institute) for being an inspirational keynote speaker, Marck Reisbord (President and Owner of On The Record, LLC), John Nichter (Owner of CertaPro Painters), Rob Wrzesniewski ’91 (Head of Global Private Banking & Wealth Management Solutions at SEI), who were thoughtful judges, and lastly Susan Hundley (Clinical Director at Fortrea), Cheryl Stouch (CIO of Endo), Jake Amendola-Reichard ’24 (Surety Product Analyst at Liberty Mutual), and Tyler Griffith ’26 for their mentorship to the participants.
Congratulations again to everyone that participated! It was amazing to see what was accomplished in such a short time.