Business

You’ve done the research, why not showcase your project in a local student pitch competition? Here are a few examples.

[Re]Produce, a sustainable business venture conceived by College of the Atlantic students Anita van Dam ’19 and Grace Burchard ’17, wins $5,000 at the 2017 University of Maine Business Challenge Finals. Check out the story.

• Greenlight Maine Collegiate Challenge - the college version of the long-running Maine pitch series Greenlight Maine. COA students advanced in the 2021 contest, and COA graduates won the regular (non-collegiate) version in 2018! 
• UMaineBusinessChallenge - open to student entrepreneurs from any Maine college or university. COA students won the competition in 2017!
• New England Food Systems Innovation Challenge - innovation competition to create products, services, apps, or organizations that support the expansion of production, distribution, processing, and consumption of local, sustainably produced food and seafood. COA students won second place in 2018!

Here are a few examples of student capstone projects, including some from the Hatchery, COA’s sustainable business incubator.

• Beehive Mountain Equipment - Jonathan Harmor + An Nguyen + Margherita Tommasini
• Big Box Farms - Jordan Motzkin
• Bike Revolution - Jose Merlo + Alan Fernald
• Coastal Maine Geopark - Sahra Gibson
• Mending Walls - Nafisa Mohammadi
• Organic agave / goat farm and production facility in Mexico - Juan Olmedo
• [Re]Produce - Grace Burchard + Anita van Dam
• Send the day: a planner and guidebook for inner-strength training - Molly Finch
• Systems: an artistic exploration - Robin Owings
• United World Schools - Surya Karki

Manomet's U360 Business Sustainability Internship Program is a multi-term opportunity to interview up to 25 small businesses about their current practices using an assessment tool for triple-bottom line sustainability, and develop a Sustainability Action Plan for one business. This program is run by COA alumna Lora Winslow Babb!