The BEAR Innovation competition encourages students to consider the core questions; “What Should Matter to Me?” and “What Will I Do?” through an experiential learning process. It helps students to hone their written and oral communication skills and allows them to explore a topic of interest that they care about. This year, 29 teams entered the competition, 12 teams (18 participants) qualified for the finals and 11 teams competed.

The 2019 BEAR Innovation Competition activities were led by Colleen Becker, U-Imagine Student Ambassador. She oversaw a team of student workers who organized, promoted and conducted all administrative activities leading up to and including the competition. Activities began in February and culminated in April, giving students the opportunity to work one on one with our Entrepreneur in Residence, Maureen Cumpstone. The U-Imagine Center hosted information sessions, open hours, workshops and consultative appointments to prepare student teams for the competition. Topics included and market analysis, financial viability, the perfect pitch, business proposal development, writing support and Intellectual Property consultation.

 
The competition continues to engage Ursinus alumni and outside experts. This year’s judges were:

Rob Gilfillan ’91, Co-Founder and President Cenero, Jen Cohen Crompton ’05, Owner, FUEL Cycle Fitness and Chris Biddle ’85, Chief Executive Officer, BCG Alpha. Our keynote speaker was Henry Michel ’03, Co-Founder/CEO of WashLB.

Congratulations to all of this year’s competitors and to the BEAR Innovation winners!

First Place: Real Time Tutoring, LLC - $3,500
Brendan Cherry (’20): BCMB

Second Place: The Nature App - $2,500
Elena Ngo (’19) – Computer Science
Charles Lyding (’19) – Computer Science
Michael Anthony (’20) – Computer Science

Third Place: SugarSharks and Co.: - $1,500
Kathleen Schultz (’22) – French & Music
Alexa Lewis (’22) – Math & Music

Ready, Set, Go Award: Tech Talks - $2,000
Sam Isola (’19) – English

Best Oral Presentation: ProKnowledge - $500
Katerina Gereda (’19) – Health and Exercise Physiology & Spanish

Competitors:

Tommy Armstrong (’20) -English
Julian Spain (’20) - MCS
Oliva Byrne (’21) - Psychology
Christian Ndaye (’21) – Computer Science
Erin Saybolt (’20) - Biology and Gemma Dufoe (’20) – Applied Economics
Seraiah Kutai (’22) - Computer Science
Charles Cravotta (’19) – Biology

This year’s competition drew students from across years and majors. There were 7 female contestants
and 9 males. They included 3 freshman, 2 sophomores, 6 juniors and 5 seniors. The majors represented
included Computer Science, Biology and Bio -Chem, English, Psychology, HEP, MCS, Music, Math and
Applied Economics. We are truly grateful for the unwavering support of Will Abele ’61, who through his
gracious generosity, provides this engaging experience for Ursinus students.