BUFFALO, NY – Another year means more success for the Canisius University chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization (CEO). For the eleventh time in 11 years, the college’s CEO team took home Best Chapter Awards from the CEO Global Conference and Pitch Competition, which took place November 1 – 3 in Kansas City, MO. The Canisius team competed against CEO chapters from more than 400 colleges and universities.
The Canisius CEO chapter was recognized as one of the top three universities in the Global Chapter of the Year category. The award is presented to a CEO club that demonstrates excellence in developing its organization and leaders, and offers meaningful experiences for CEO members.
The Canisius CEO chapter secured second place in the category for Best Cross Innovation and Networking. The award recognizes a CEO chapter that has expanded beyond its primary audience of business majors to interact, organize and engage with other colleges or academic programs. The chapter also took home a second place finish in the category for Outstanding Chapter Revenue Generating Initiative. The award recognizes a CEO chapter that generated revenue by launching a business or fundraising initiative.
Ji-Hee Kim, PhD, faculty advisor to the chapter and director of the Canisius entrepreneurship program, won first place in the category for Outstanding CEO Chapter Advisor.
A total of nine Canisius students attended the global conference and competition. They are:
- Nathan Waley ’21
- Austin Klink ’19
- Alexandra Gerspach ’20
- Nicholas Buyers ’20
- Jonathan Wess ’21
- Thomas Gilmore ’22
- Gabriela Sun ’20
- Jennifer Trybuskiewicz ’21
- Katherine Doyle ’20
CEO is a global, non-profit organization, which serves, informs, supports and inspires college students to be entrepreneurial and to seek opportunities through enterprise creation. With a diverse entrepreneurial community and global network, CEO provides student entrepreneurs with events and student networking opportunities, and serves as an information resource for prospective entrepreneurs.
Kim originally established the Canisius University chapter of CEO in January 2007. The chapter offers student members the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial leadership, professional communication skills, successful team building and teamwork skills, and knowledge in entrepreneurship by creating, designing, planning, leading, organizing and implementing educational outreach and experiential entrepreneurship projects.
The Canisius CEO chapter is supported by the entrepreneurship major and interdisciplinary entrepreneurship minor programs within the Department of Management, as well as by the businessmen and businesswomen of the Entrepreneurs on Campus group. The Canisius CEO team previously won Best Chapter Awards in 2008-2017 and in 2013-2016.
Canisius is one of 28 Jesuit universities in the nation and the premier private university in Western New York.
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