Iowa State’s Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship has been chosen to administer the 1999 Iowa Collegiate Entrepreneur Awards, and the center has also received grant money to start the Young Iowa Entrepreneurs Youth Marketplace outreach program.

The decision to select the Pappajohn Center as the sole administrator of the awards was made by the Jefferson Smurfit Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at St. Louis University, according to a press release.

According to Judi Nielsen, assistant director at ISU Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, any undergraduate student in the state of Iowa, who during the 1998-99 school year simultaneously carries on a business, is eligible for the award.

“Anyone out there who is running a business should apply,” Nielsen said.

According to the release, prize money is available for both the student and for their faculty nominator.

“The faculty member is like a mentor,” Nielsen said. The faculty member nominates the student for the award, and he or she is rewarded along with the student. Nielsen added that students can get help from a faculty member.

The winner of the ISU Pappajohn Center competition will advance to the North American Entrepreneurial Awards competition this spring, Nielsen said.

Nielsen said the students submit information about their business, and the center chooses who will get to compete.

“The neat thing is that ISU gets to administer [the award] for the next year,” Nielsen said.

Iowa joins the following states in administration of this program: California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico and Wisconsin, according to a press release.

Applications will be available at the beginning of the upcoming fall semester from the Pappajohn Center, located at 2501 North Loop Drive, Building 1, Suite 615.

The Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship has also received money to start the Young Iowa Entrepreneurs Youth Marketplace outreach program.

According to Nielsen, the center received $21,000 from the Coleman Foundation in Chicago. The foundation awards grants for entrepreneurship awareness education in the Midwest.

“This is a first-time event. The grant money allows us to develop and pilot the program,” Nielsen said. “[The Pappajohn Center] will implement a program for young entrepreneurs.”

The center will pilot the program in Ames this fall.

According to the release, the inaugural Youth Marketplace outreach program will be offered to a group of sixth-grade students in the Ames community.

Nielsen said there are three components to the program. The students will attend an educational component, a business development component where students develop an idea to create a business or service they can do for a profit, and a marketplace event, which is a trade show where all children sell their products or services to the public.

The goals of this program include generating awareness of and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship; teaching young people about the risks and rewards of self-employment through business creation and management; and demonstrating entrepreneurial success by utilizing entrepreneurs as instructors and speakers. In the future, the center hopes to implement this program on a statewide basis.

“We feel the best way to teach entrepreneurship is to start with young people,” Nielsen said.

Any interested parent, educator or businessperson should contact Judi Nielsen, ISU Pappajohn Center, 296-6532, for more information.