"How'd they get so impactful?" asks Owen Raisch, president of the national Student-Run Businesses Association (SRBA). He was referring to Pace's Center for Student Enterprise (CSE), a consortium of five student-run businesses on the Pleasantville Campus that collectively employ 80 Lubin students. Founded in 2010 by Professor Kathy Winsted, PhD, and her students, the CSE is a member of the SRBA, which supports and represents 5,000+ student entrepreneurial founders, leaders, and organizations. Raisch visited the campus to see how these budding entrepreneurs have made such a big impact on the Pace community.
All of the student managers tell me that when they go for interviews for internships or full-time jobs that all the interviewer wants to ask them about is their position at the student-run business.
"All of the student managers tell me that when they go for interviews for internships or full-time jobs that all the interviewer wants to ask them about is their position at the student-run business," says Professor Winsted. "When the student who was one of the original founders of Pace Mart went for an interview at J.P. Morgan, she was able to answer the situational questions with real experiences she had at the business she was running. She was hired on the spot."
Raisch complimented the prevalence of food services among the CSE businesses. With Pace Perk Cafe providing coffee and treats, Pace Mart convenience store essentials, Pace Fit healthy smoothies and snacks, and Pace Delivers meals from neighborhood restaurants, four of the five businesses are in the food service sector (the fifth, Pace Connect, is a research and call center that conducts the annual Pace Poll, among other endeavors). These four businesses fill the gaps when the cafeteria is closed on weekends and evenings, with Pace Delivers serving the residence halls at 10:00 a.m. and midnight – perfect for late-night study breaks.
The CSE does not limit itself to the five existing businesses. Students interested in starting or managing an entrepreneurial endeavor can meet with like-minded peers and professors and work to have their ideas come to fruition. From the initial business, Pace Perk, students worked to develop and launch the other four, recognizing the market demand for items such as the healthy smoothies provided by Pace Fit or the late-night restaurant meals from Pace Delivers.
I loved learning how the student-run business program at Pace in Pleasantville became a, if not THE, main food service provider on campus.
"I loved learning how the student-run business program at Pace in Pleasantville became a, if not THE, main food service provider on campus," Raisch says. Noting the unusually high participation rate (roughly 13% of Lubin's 615 Pleasantville students work at CSE businesses), he said, "The program reflects some of the best qualities of our members."
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