Recognizing entrepreneurs
By CC Times, Published October 28, 2009

Community colleges are not only being recognized more widely for their programs to retrain dislocated workers in the current economy, but they are also garnering attention for serving as hubs for business entrepreneurs.

Last week, the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) recognized some of the top entrepreneurs and the colleges that helped them get their start at NACCE’s annual conference in Chicago. Two entrepreneurs—both educated at community colleges—and a faculty member were recognized for their achievements, as was an entrepreneurial center known for its innovative programs.

Noelia Urzula Vasquez, a student at Dakota County Technical College in Minnesota, was co-winner of the association’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 1999, working with her husband, Enrique Garcia Salazar, Vazquez founded the La Loma Coffee Shop at Mercado Central, a Latin American marketplace that was just opening in Minneapolis.

The shop quickly blossomed as one of the busiest businesses at the popular marketplace. The modest coffee shop evolved into Cafeteria La Loma and sells as many as 2,500 tamales a day.

The venture was only the beginning for Noelia and Enrique, who have gone on to found La Loma Mexican Restaurants, a catering business and a wholesale tamale business that serves more than 260 stores in Minnesota and is on track to expand its sales nationwide. The company has 35 employees and annual sales topping $2.5 million.

“Noelia’s entrepreneurial success is truly inspiring,” said NACCE Executive Director Heather Van Sickle. “She and her husband have taken something as simple as a tamale and, through hard work and perseverance, created a vibrant, growing business that employs dozens of people.”

NACCE presented its Lifetime Achievement in Entrepreneurship Award to John Pappajohn, the driving force behind the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center at his alma mater, North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC), as well as four other entrepreneurship centers at other schools in Iowa. To date, Pappajohn has donated more than $15 million to the centers.

A highly successful venture capitalist, Pappajohn has helped to find funding for more than 63 companies. At age 81, he is still active and sponsors the New Venture and Iowa Business Plan Competitions, giving many new companies in Iowa a strong start.

“This award marks yet another acknowledgement of the incredible work and generosity that John has shared through his entrepreneurial endeavors,” said NIACC President Deb Derr. “As a NIACC graduate, John has served as the inspiration for so many of our students to follow their dreams.”

NIACC’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center received the NACCE Innovation Award, which was initiated this year to recognize entrepreneurial centers and their impact on the communities they serve.

Carlene Cassidy, director of the Entrepreneurial Studies Institute at Anne Arundel Community College (Maryland), received the Entrepreneurship Faculty of the Year Award. Cassidy was nominated by Georgia Worrell, a student who operates a business in the college’s student business incubator, which Cassidy played a key role in developing.

The winner of the NACCE’s student essay contest was Chevan Jessamine, who attends Central Texas College (CTC). In his winning essay on the topic of “How Entrepreneurship Education at My Community College Has Helped Me Reach My Goals,” Jessamine, an immigrant from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent’s, described how he was able to start a successful window-covering business with the help of knowledge he gained at CTC.

“I think that a community college such as Central Texas College truly makes a difference, helping individuals overcome the negatives–lack of money, rattle-trap cars and having to choose between gas and groceries,” he wrote. “We can all become entrepreneurs and share in the American dream. We just need the know-how and the knowledge that community colleges impart.”