The Entrepreneurship Club hosted a meeting on Tuesday.

This year, the club plans on focusing on interaction within the club rather than hosting multiple general meetings, said Jazmine Mendez, a senior finance major and president of the entrepreneurship club.

“It’s [the club interaction that’s] better than a general meeting since people can’t make it to the meetings because it is during free period and it’s kind of hard for people to make it, especially with club competition,” she said.

To increase club interaction and get students interested in participating, the entrepreneurship club is inviting students to join them to two company visits this semester, Mendez said.

“The first company visit is going to be the Akola Project, which is March 22 at 3:20 p.m.,” she said. “The Akola Project is a jewelry line that gives all of its profits into its social mission, which is employing unemployable women in Uganda and Dallas.”

According to akolaproject.org, Akola is “creating a social impact throughout the entire supply chain.” The process begins in Uganda where women are trained to hand-roll paper beads and hand-carve Ankole cow horn. The jewelry is then assembled in Uganda and Dallas. Akola’s distribution center, located in Dallas, gives women with criminal records a chance “to enter the mainstream workforce.”

The club is also visiting Café Momentum on April 3 at 10 a.m., a café that employs youth that has previously been in juvenile detention centers, said Ingis Serrano, a senior finance major and VP of events for the club.

According to cafemomentum.org, Café Momentum is a Dallas-based restaurant and culinary facility that “transforms young lives by equipping our community’s most at-risk youth with life skills, education and employment opportunities to help them achieve their full potential.”

Entrepreneurship club, allows students to put all of the material they learned in class, marketing, finance, and management, together. By going to companies like Akola Project and Café Momentum, the club officers are able to show their members there are socially responsible companies that positively impact communities in their own back yard, said Serrrano.

The entrepreneurship club is not just for students in the School of Business Administration, said Mendez.

“We want to open it up to where it’s not just the business school, but to where it’s open to all the other schools,” she said.

Mayra Hernandez, a junior management and marketing major, believes joining the club allows students to learn the importance of networking.

“This is a good opportunity to network not only with your professors because sometimes not only do the sponsors come to the meetings, but other professors that are interested come,” she said. “Also, these trips and events they make, you get to work with people in your community or CEO’s or you know managers from these companies that could lead you to like a job opportunity.”

The next meeting will be on April 21 where they will host an officer election. The current officers hope they will find accountable, communicative, responsible, and organized individuals to run in the election, Mendez said. Anyone interested in becoming a member or officer for the Entrepreneurship Club contact President Jazmine Mendez at [email protected].