WCU’s Business Idea Competition

On April 19, the Cottrell Entrepreneurial Leadership Center (CELC) at West Chester University will co-host the Annual WCU Business Idea Competition with the Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic.

A presentation by Chris Heivly, WCU’s Entrepreneur in Residence and Entrepreneur in Residence at Techstars, will kick off the day. Dubbed the Startup Whisperer, Heivly is the co-founder of MapQuest and a WCU graduate. The topic of his presentation is “Building Startup Communities: Best Practices.” He will address economic development, entrepreneurship, and the importance of having a sustainable community ecosystem in place in Chester County.

Wes Dickson

Wayne native Wes Dickson, a senior industrial engineering student at Penn State, has been selected to receive the S. Balachandran Service Scholarship by Alpha Pi Mu, the industrial engineering national honor society. Dickson is president of the Alpha Pi Mu Honor Society chapter at Penn State and a co-corporate chair of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) student chapter.

In 2016, Dickson was presented with the Harold and Inge Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering’s Jackie Livella/IISE Award for Service. He was also a recipient of the Marcus Scholarship and the Harold A. Johnson Scholarship in 2015-16 and a recipient of the IISE Dwight D. Gardner Scholarship in 2016.

Karthik Murugan

Karthik Murugan, a fifth grader at Pickering Valley Elementary School in the Downingtown Area School District, recently won a section championship in the ninth annual Greater Mid-Atlantic Scholastic Chess Championships in Baltimore.

There were 255 Players from five Mid-Atlantic states: Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C. Karthik played in the K-5 Chess Championship Section. He won 4.5 out of five games, and also won the championship.