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Happy Money Smart Month!
No matter what career path you pursue, you can always become smarter when it comes to money! Financial literacy is the ability to be informed and make productive decisions regarding your finances. There are many benefits to learning how to manage your money. If you are an entrepreneur wanting to grow your business, you’ll need to acquire these skills.
The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, including our Minority Entrepreneurship Collaboration Center for Advancement, are here to serve and provide resources to budding entrepreneurs as they become successful business owners!
Growing our entrepreneurs’ financial skills and cultivating their economic impact are the transformational keys to breaking generational, financial barriers and burdens. We know that enabling entrepreneurs to make informed decisions about their finances will help their businesses thrive.
We see you, we celebrate you! - During National Small Business Week, from April 30th to May 6th, we are celebrating our wonderful entrepreneurs with special events throughout the week (more information below).
Thank you,
Kristy Jackson, Ed.S.
Director, Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE)
Anheuser-Busch School of Business
Harris-Stowe State University
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Black History Innovators Meet + Greet | In February, we commemorated Black History Month with our Black History Innovators Meet & Greet event. Hosted at Filament’s innovation space in the Cortex district, the event featured five Black entrepreneurs, who talked about their businesses and optimism for what the future holds, while sharing advice with aspiring and start-up entrepreneurs. The Filament team led attendees through a networking activity that resulted in a visual representation of the conversation. Everyone then had time to network and support the vendors who were present. View the video recap of this fabulous event HERE. | |
Spring 2023 MECCA Start-Up and Scale-Up Cohorts | The Spring MECCA Entrepreneurship Accelerators are going strong. A team launched a new way to kick off the Accelerator programs. MECCA held a Draft Day, a formal celebration welcoming the selected entrepreneurs into the program. We are looking forward to celebrating the cohorts during their graduation ceremony in May (more information soon to come)! | |
Our March Crash Course and Business Mixer was a success. Thank you to Glennetta Haymon, Esq., who shared her expertise about intellectual property. We enjoyed both her insight and the conversation with our attendees! View a recap of the evening HERE. | |
HBCU Entrepreneurship Week | We recently had our HBCU Entrepreneurship Week at HSSU! The first event was a wonderful financial workshop on budgeting, which was led by Shannon James of Thrivent. The second event was an Arch Grants Entrepreneurship Founder Lecture for our ABSB scholars. The third event, led by MECCA Director Brandi Brooks, covered accessibility and challenged entrepreneurs to be mindful of how products and services are designed with social good in mind. The last event was a “Pizza and Panel” discussion, led by Renee Cunningham, which involved MECCA entrepreneurs sharing their journeys. Panelists included: Stanley Prince, Arriel Bivens-Biggs, Michelle Dillard, Leslie T. Tolliver, and Tara Robinson. | |
At the end of March, we had our inaugural MadeHer: Women’s History Tea luncheon. The event celebrated the accomplishments and successes of women leaders and entrepreneurs, and also highlighted the history of “tea time” within the Black community. We also honored Dr. Stacy Gee Hollins, with the first-ever “Women's HersTEAry Excellence in Innovation” award. This award commemorates the exemplary work that Dr. Hollins has done at HSSU and for the community. A special thank you to our emcee, Jade Harrell, and keynote speaker, Emory Reignz. View photos from the event (courtesy of Carol Lara Photography). | |
To our Women Innovators,
We are seeking people to join the Planning Committee as we establish our annual Women's History Tea!
If interested, please contact:
Kristy Jackson - JacksonK@hssu.edu or Gail Sharpe - SharpeG@hssu.edu.
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Leslie Tolliver, JD, SHRM-CP is the Owner of The Phoenix Group-STL, an HR consulting firm. Leslie brings over 15 years of legal experience and more than 10 years of HR experience from both the private and public sectors. Prior to launching The Phoenix Group-STL, Leslie provided employee relations support, DEI training and talent acquisition to a local financial institution. | |
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She holds a B.A. from University of Missouri-Columbia and a J.D. from University of Columbia School of Law. She also holds a DEI certification from Cornell University and a Certified HR Professional designation from SHRM.
Much of Leslie’s work has been in the governmental and the education space, in both union and non-union environments. The Phoenix Group-STL focuses on supporting small businesses and non-profits, with employee relation issues, Training and Workshop Facilitation, as well as Talent Acquisition.
Leslie participated in the Facilitator Training Program by Harris-Stowe, and is now a Facilitator of the MECCA Entrepreneurship Accelerator program!
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Chaneyll Anderson is the CEO of C5 Events and Décor. She founded her business after planning, decorating, and coordinating her own wedding. Her discovery of her love for event planning and designing led to her decision to turn it into a fulfilling career. C5 Events & Décor is a full-service event planning & design company based out of St. Louis, MO, providing a unique experience for each client with personal, innovative, and customized designs to meet and/or exceed clients’ expectations for their special occasion. | |
Photo courtesy of Gator MediaSTL | |
The company offers day of wedding coordination, full-service wedding planning & event design services. Chaneyll participated in the Fall 2022 Start-Up Entrepreneurship Accelerator. | |
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Dear MECCA grads,
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! CIE and MECCA loves hearing updates and success stories from our entrepreneurs who have participated in our programs. Please reach out to us at mecca@hssu.edu and let us know how you're doing, and if you need any additional support/resources.
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Collaborations and Partnerships | |
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Thank you to our new and growing partnerships, including:
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Filament, who is partnering with us to help create events that are designed to advance under-represented business owners throughout the Greater St. Louis region, advancing the mission of the CIE – the first event being the Black History Innovators Meet + Greet.
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Rung for Women, who partnered with us to hold our inaugural MadeHer: Women’s History Tea luncheon.
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Thrivent, who partnered with us to hold our HBCU Entrepreneurship Week at HSSU.
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Keisha Mabry and Heydays HQ, who is partnering with us for numerous events.
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Black Tech Conference
Harris-Stowe State University is hosting the Black Tech Conference (STL Tech Week) on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Learn more about the FREE event HERE.
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Thursday, April 27: Join the Arch Grants Community for a webinar Founder Series: Fundraising for a CPG Company, led by Dan Schaefer, Co-Founder of Native Pet. Register HERE. | |
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Student Pitch Competition
Join the Anheuser-Busch School of Business for the MECCA Scholar Pitch Competition on April 27th! Meet us in the Dr. Dwaun J. Warmack Auditorium at HSSU's Dr. Henry Givens Jr Administration Building. Directions to campus.
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Masterclass and Crash Course
On Friday, April 28, from 2-4pm, The Anheuser-Busch School of Business and Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship are hosting a FREE Masterclass, featuring Psyche Southwell. Psyche, a Senior Customer Success Engineer and creator of Economy of Style, will be discussing the topic, “What can we do today to prime ourselves for a future that we can barely even imagine?”
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Meet us later, from 6-8PM, for our FREE Crash Course Business Mixer at Heydays HQ. Hosted by Keisha Mabry, and featuring Psyche Southwell, they will share how to work smarter with automation tools to accelerate your business.
We welcome everyone to attend, partake in this learning experience, and also take the time to network with fellow entrepreneurs and attendees!
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National Small Business Week
Join CIE|MECCA at several events for National Small Business Week. This week commemorates the many contributions that entrepreneurs and small business owners have made throughout society.
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Wednesday, May 10: St. Louis Business Expo & Business Growth Conference. Learn more HERE. | |
Entrepreneur Reads and Resources | |
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ABOUT CIE
The Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) serves as a hub of innovation, a center for entrepreneurship, and a facilitator of partnerships to enhance the black/brown community as well as the community at large.
ABOUT MECCA
The Minority Entrepreneurship Collaborative Center for Advancement (MECCA) serves as a hub of campus and community entrepreneurial activities fostering the growth of emerging entrepreneurs and cultivating the next generation of entrepreneurs from minority and under-resourced communities as future business owners. MECCA provides educational training and services to assist individuals pursuing entrepreneurship, establishes partnerships with local centers for entrepreneurship, provides counseling services to entrepreneurs in developing markets, hosts and sponsors workshops and educational seminars in collaboration with community partners, and assists entrepreneurs in establishing accounting and licensing procedures.
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