Lauren Sanderson ’18 accepts the 1819 Award from President Brian W. Casey. Photo by Mark DiOrio.

Lauren Sanderson ’18 is an entrepreneur, student-athlete, academic all-star, and a soon-to-be published poet who now adds Colgate University’s most prestigious student recognition, the 1819 Award, to her impressive résumé of accomplishments.

The 1819 Award is given annually to one graduating student whose character, scholarship, sportsmanship, and service to others best exemplify the university’s spirit and the value of a liberal arts education.

“Lauren has distinguished herself as a gifted poet who has won a national contest to have her first book of poems published,” wrote nominator Peter Balakian, professor of English and winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. “Lauren was also the captain of the women’s volleyball team and an athlete of high distinction in her four years here. She remains an unusual student and one with real leadership qualities and contributes greatly to the intellectual life of the student body.”

Hailing from London, Ontario, Sanderson is an English major with an emphasis on creative writing. She was the 2017 winner of the Lasher Prize for outstanding talent and has received the Dean’s Award every semester of her Colgate career. On the volleyball court, she was ranked first in setting by the Patriot League and 13th nationally for assists.

While attending department-sponsored workshops, Sanderson organized her own writing roundtables, encouraging and teaching friends and classmates to express themselves through writing. She is a member of the board of organizers for Lounge, an organization that hosts open-mic nights off campus. A peer tutor on campus, Sanderson also volunteers her time in Sherburne, N.Y. to mentor middle school students.

Outside of the classroom and off the court, Sanderson is an active member of the Thought Into Action Entrepreneurship Incubator, where she and Brandon Doby ’18 earned $1,000 in funding during Entrepreneur Weekend for their film-production company, ISO, and was named one of this year’s $13,000 Entrepreneur Fund recipients.

“Every person has a tale to tell, but a rare few hone their storytelling skills across multiple media, across multiple topics; some difficult, others beautiful.” said President Brian W. Casey during the university’s Awards Convocation on May 4. “Our 1819 Award winner has spent the last four years at Colgate working with words, sharing them rather than holding them close. Through her art, she focuses on issues of gender inequality and violence. She has acted on the belief that, if we put our joy and pain on paper, readers will recognize commonalities in the human experience, celebrate differences, and overcome divisiveness.”

Sanderson’s poetry manuscript is slated to be published by Write Bloody Press in March 2019, and she will be embarking on a 20-stop promotional tour after graduation. She plans to apply to graduate school to earn an MFA in creative writing.

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Ben Sharf ’20, founder of Campus Coat Check and campus representative for Dorm Room Fund, can now add published author to his resume. How to Start a Startup @ Colgate, published on Medium.com, walks Colgate students through everything they need to know about starting a venture at the University. There are three parts to Ben’s piece:

Part 1: Colgate’s Thought Into Action Entrepreneurship Program

TIA is the front door for Entrepreneurship at Colgate, and most all entrepreneurship programming and resources at Colgate stem from TIA. This section covers all aspects of Thought Into Action from the Student Incubator to the Entrepreneurs Fund and everything in between.

Part 2: TIA General Startup Resources

The TIA General Startup Resources page is arguably the most useful online resource that Colgate has to offer. It is a consolidated platform full of helpful documents and links — some developed specifically for entrepreneurs in the TIA Student Incubator; all relevant to entrepreneurs launching ventures.

Part 3:  Additional Resources

Although the entrepreneur scene at Colgate is centered around Thought Into Action, the school does a great job of offering students alternative options to make sure they find the right fit in the ecosystem to be successful. In this section Ben comprises a list of all these resources to help navigate through the journey as an entrepreneur at Colgate.

Read the full article HERE.

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In addition to transitioning from high school to college and adjusting to life away from home, Colgate University Freshman Christina Weiler is not only helping fight hunger in Utica….she’s helping her fellow classmates, faculty and staff to do it, too. It’s as easy as throwing away empty containers.

“I founded UCan because I wanted to make change-making something that everyone could be a part of at any moment at any day,” said Christina Weiler. Weiler’s appropriately-named project enables anyone on campus to help the cause, and it’s virtually effortless. She and a handful of volunteers have placed 50 receptacles in 16 buildings on campus. Once a week, they put on protective gloves, collect the containers and redeem them. They give the cash to the Utica Rescue Mission.

“What we’ve seen so far is they’ve collected over 5000 units,” says Jim Haid, Executive Director of the Utica Rescue Mission. “They want to one, recycle. They have that mind frame. But they also want to help out social agencies like ours and particularly they want to help out in our food area.”

Weiler recently won an enterpreneurship competition at Colgate. She hopes to use it to show other colleges and universities that they can, too.

“We were awarded $4000 in funding as well as an introduction to Wal Mart, which could help distribute our facilities and distribution across the country, which is exactly what we want to do, and we want to bring UCan to every university possible.”

Reprinted from WKTV.com

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2018 eFund winners, left to right: Luke Goodwin, Sheila Dunne ’20, Dean Koman ’17, Chase Jackson ’13, Lauren Sanderson ’18, Brandon Doby ’18 and Wills Hapworth ’07, Executive Director of TIA

Welcome to the sixth year of Colgate’s Entrepreneurs Fund! The fund was created in 2013 in recognition of the large number of student and alumni entrepreneurs throughout the Colgate community who are solving problems and demonstrating an ability to execute. Open to for-profit and non-profit ventures with at least one Colgate member on the founding team, the fund offers prizewinners the opportunity to grow their ventures with seed capital; incubator space for the summer in Hamilton; and intellectual resources from within the Colgate community.

The fund was established in 2013, and maintained with lead gifts from Dan and Linda Rosensweig P’15, ’17, Noah Wintroub ’98 and Carey Jennings, and Michael ’86 and Julie Ellenbogen.

Congratulations to the five teams chosen as this years winners of the fund:

Deco Slides is an online retailer and manufacturer of unique slide sandals with swappable straps. Chase Jackson ’13, Sam Jackson

Dunne Marketing provides social media management and social media marketing solutions for businesses to increase brand awareness and drive sales, saving both time and money. Sheila Dunne ’20, Luke Goodwin

ISO Film is a creative content house that specializes in full service film and video production. ISO walks the line between art and commerce by bringing a high level of artistry to business projects, which distinguishes our product and makes our customers stand out in the corporate world. Brandon Doby ’18, Lauren Sanderson ’18

Profillic is an AI-powered knowledge discovery platform for data science R&D that connects scientists with research, industry developments, peer reviews, projects, and more relevant to their work and interests. Gaurav Ragtah ’13, Himanshu Ragtah

YourYard provides on-demand access to fun lawn and beach games like spike, kadima, and wiffle ball, through a network of phone-activated lockers.  Dean Koman ’17, Nathan Weinrauch, Zach Flyer

Read more about the past five years of the Entrepreneurs Fund in action and the impressive impact it has had since its inception.

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