Bryant University Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization

Number One…Again

Bryant University CEO has won Best CEO Chapter in the country yet again. Competing against over 190 schools across the country such as Oklahoma State, University of Southern California, and the University of Tampa, and Texas Christian University, just to name a few. As it is a tremendous honor to be crowned best in the nation, it’s an even bigger tribute because no CEO chapter has ever been awarded Best Chapter two years in a row. But that’s not all; Bryant CEO also came back to Rhode Island with Best Website and Best National Student Leader.

Lauren Amarante was the recipient of the Best National Student Leader award, which is a testament to all of the hard work she has done with both CEO and the Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) at Bryant. Lauren works for GEP as an events coordinator and has been a member of CEO for the past two years. During this time, Lauren has had some great accomplishments such as helping plan and coordinate the Elevator Pitch Competitions, and bringing Benjamin Zander to speak--for free. Zander is an orchestra conductor and nationally acclaimed speaker on leadership who typically gets paid around $60,000 to appear, but Lauren was able to strike a deal with him. If she brought 300 students to see the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra perform in Boston, he would come speak at our university. Lauren was now faced with the problem of “enrolling” 300 students. Determined, Lauren planned and pitched day and night; 250 students showed up to see the concert to the surprise of Zander. At Bryant, Zander made a huge deal about Lauren and explained how impressed that he’d never seen a sophomore in college that had the drive and passion like she did; he coined this the “Lauren Amarante Factor.” This in short is the concept of living in the realm of possibility and never giving up. Lauren is a truly a special individual who undoubtedly deserves this award, and encourages everyone to live in the realm of possibility every day.

John Botte, the new Information Technology chair, is a new addition to the CEO executive board and has done some remarkable things for our website. He has completely revamped the website giving it an entirely new look and layout. Given the relatively short period of time he had to complete this site in order for it to be done in time to be judged, it is needless to say that John is quite talented in what he does. So talented that his entrepreneurial spirit challenged the heads of the CEO National Convention to take over their website and improve upon it—THEY AGREED!

While both Lauren and John are stellar members of our organization, it has taken the work of the entire Bryant University Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization to win Best Chapter in the country. Our dedicated members and executive board have done incredible work and helped our group grow by leaps and bounds. Even though Bryant CEO walked away with three different awards, the CEO National Conference is much more than a competition. Each year, we look forward to “the conference for entrepreneurs to learn, network, and become inspired by others.” Whether it is a student from a different university who is starting their own business, or one of the many successful/famous speakers such as Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad, or Ryan Allis of IContact, Inc. everyone has something to offer. The fact that Bryant CEO brought 63 students to Chicago to take part in this event is incredible, and proves the enthusiasm that our members have for entrepreneurship and business.

Our CEO chapter has only been recognized on campus since 2005 and started with eight self appointed members, which has since grown to over 150 members out of a campus of 3,200 students. The most important thing Bryant CEO has done though is change the culture of the university; a feat that very few CEO chapters can say that they have accomplished. At our school, everyone takes a vested interest in the success of the entrepreneurs’ organization; but it wasn’t always this way. We started with nothing, no entrepreneurship program, no classes, no major/minor, no club, nowhere to go for help. Basically, a young entrepreneur at a great business school like Bryant had nothing. Today, because of the student movement within CEO, entrepreneurship is thriving. The President of the University, all three Deans, Vice Presidents, Trustees, alumni, faculty and staff attend our events and have a huge impact on our organization. This new interest in entrepreneurship has also allowed the Bryant Global Entrepreneurship Program to bring in entrepreneurship as a new major/minor to the school. Beginning next semester, students will have the opportunity to choose from a variety of entrepreneurship classes. As CEO has grown as an organization, Bryant continues to grow with us.

While our passion has driven us to change the culture of our university, a lot of our success can be attributed to our structure. Unlike most CEO chapters that have the typical executive board of President, Vice President, Secretary, etc. ours is made up of fifteen different positions ranging from IT to event planning. Each executive board member has their own committee ranging from 5 to 25 people that the general members chose to participate in. This has allowed us not only to get our general members more involved, and ensure that the future leaders will bring Bryant CEO in a positive direction.

So what exactly does Bryant CEO do that sets them apart from the rest? We host one of the world’s largest elevator pitch competitions that every freshman is required to compete in, and is always one of the most highly anticipated events of the year. We have created CEO Consulting, which is a student-run non-profit consulting firm that provides services to entrepreneurs and organizations outside the Bryant University community. We currently have three clients one of which is a man named Barry Blair who has a T.V. infomercial kitchen product. He plans to have sales near 50 million and will be placing our groups CEO logo on all of the packaging. This past summer, Bryant CEO led a group of 10 students to witness the re-birth of China during the Olympic games. While there, students visited Chinese Multinational Corporations and networked with each other as well as top leaders in business, government, and academia. We also host an event called Pumpkin Festival around the time of Halloween where students come and buy pumpkins for one dollar each and then carve them on site. Students also buy “pumpkin gut pies” which they use to pie the executive board member of their choice. The proceeds go to Camp Sunshine, which is a camp for terminally ill children; this year we were able to raise $1300. Some other notable events that CEO has done are the Purple Cow Marketing Competition, Best Idea Challenge, and host an annual entrepreneurial speaking series at Thursday general meetings. Aside from events, Bryant CEO also brings some of the best speakers to campus such as David Neeleman CEO of Jet Blue, Kenneth Cole CEO of Kenneth Cole, and Bert & John Jacobs founders of Life is Good Clothing.

Bryant University CEO has truly set the bar for all others to follow and will continue to do so in the future. We believe that you need to organize your life around your dreams to watch them come true. We here at Bryant are passionate about what we do; we believe in the power of dreams and will stop at nothing to achieve our goals.


Written by Tyler Murphy, edited by Tyler Fishback