By: Eliana Morales
Six groups presented their business ventures at Bring It EXPO on April 9. According to Sergio Bellino, associate professor in the School of Business and advisor for Enactus, “Bring It is a campus-wide showcase organized by the Southern Adventist University School of Business. [It is] open to every student, every major, every idea.”
While the Bring It Studio event at the end of the fall semester offers students an opportunity to give a 90-second pitch of their business idea, the Bring It EXPO in the Winter semester gives six ventures a chance to present their work.
Bellino emphasized that anyone can participate, not just business students. “That is not a formality,” he said. “It is the point.”
Bring It EXPO is not a competition. Instead, qualifying projects receive a certain amount of seed money, depending on what stage of the development process they have reached. According to Bellino, the money comes from donors who believe in giving students “a real shot.” It is not a prize, but an investment, he said.
This year featured three student ventures and three community-owned ventures. Melanie Gonzales-Jimenez, a freshman accounting major, presented the first student venture, Sorora, a safety app designed to quickly connect students with Campus Safety.
Andrew Pellandini, a sophomore construction management major, presented his venture, Hunters Hangout, a social media app for hunters.
Senior finance major Glenn Grakov and senior accounting major Sharon Duque presented MyCareExperts, a business that helps people find a trusted assisted living facility.
After the presentations, students joined a Q&A session with two panelists, John Boskind and Christopher Beason. Boskind is a general surgeon and entrepreneur, while Beason is the president of Network 7 Media Center, an international production house.
The panelists questioned each group about its strategy and pointed out possible issues. They asked Pellandini about how he would provide capital funding for the site without advertisers and pressed Gonzales-Jimenez on how much testing had been done with her app.
The last three ventures were community-owned, created by the students for a specific community to operate.
Senior business administration major Lauren Keller and junior business administration major Ava Neimeyer presented ElevateHer, a sewing cooperative in Kenya. The ElevateHer project aims to aid women who lack income by teaching them to sew reusable feminine pads and fashionable bags.
The next venture was Bayiri, presented by freshman business administration major Miracle Guduno, senior business administration major Kareena Hansen and sophomore accounting major Isabella Fernandes-Hidalgo. Bayiri seeks to improve the nutritional quality of porridge in Burkina Faso, a country in West Africa.
Finally, senior cyber security major Chase Slikkers, junior construction management major Caleb Teron and sophomore human capital management major Gabriela Goncalves presented Thrive Uganda, or THRU, a financial literacy program in rural Uganda.
The community-owned ventures participated in a Q&A session with the panelists before the recognition ceremony.
After all the presentations and panels, Hunters Hangout received $500 for completing the design phase, Sorora received $1,000 for completing the development phase and MyCareExperts received $1,500 for completing the execute phase. Then, students involved in the community-owned ventures received a project management certificate from the School of Business. Bellino explained that these ventures did not receive funds because the money is supposed to be sourced through partners, the community or fundraising.
The Bring It EXPO gave some students practice for Enactus United States Expo 2026, taking place April 16-18 in Denver, Colorado.
“It’s good to be in a high-pressure environment, like we’re going to be for our expo next week,” said Slikkers.
Boskind, one of the panelists, said he thought the ventures represented a lot of hard work, long hours and, most importantly, teamwork. When asked in what area the students need the most guidance, he said the challenge is always real-world experience.
“The world throws challenges at you that you don’t necessarily feel or experience in the classroom,” Boskind said.
Arabella Block, a junior health science major, attended as an audience member.
“I thought they did a really good job,” Block said. “All of [the groups] had a product that had a very niche market. Especially the projects in Africa seemed to have a really good strategy.”
