WVUP announces Pitch Competition Winners

 Parkersburg, W.Va. (February 19, 2024) — WVU Parkersburg hosted the first stage of the WVUP Pitch Competition in the Proud Room of the main campus on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024.

The WVUP Pitch Competition gives student entrepreneurs an outlet to present their business ideas to community figures with business acumen. The judges included: Kathy Eddy, Erickson Foundation trustee; Tres Ross, Ross Foundation executive director; Dr. Jacqueline Khorassani, senior director of Entrepreneurship and Career Development at Marietta College; Michele Wilson, dean of WVUP’s Workforce, Technical, and Computer Information Science Division; And Gregory Hill, WVUP Business Instructor.

“I’m very grateful to be a part of this and especially thankful to Dr. Jackson, NACCE, the Erickson Foundation, and the Ross Foundation for helping make it possible. This is an amazing opportunity for everyone involved,” said Charles Almond, C.O. and Charles F. Erickson distinguished faculty chair in Entrepreneurship. “For the students, it’s a chance to be innovative and solve a real-world problem by applying what they’ve learned. They and other students can also work towards achieving a dream and helping others.”

He continued, “For the college, it’s a chance to live our missions and provide life-changing educational opportunities, and for the community it’s a chance to build a better economy where everyone can have new opportunities.”

During the competition, students presented ideas like software agencies, an ever-evolving playset for children and a back-up safety system for campers.

WVUP students Elizabeth Perdue, Eric Wright and Devon Dalrymple, won first, second and third place, respectively.

Perdue presented her idea for a mobile welding unit she could use to travel to fix heavy machinery.

“My idea was a mobile welding rig, that I can use to help support my local community,” said Perdue. “I want to help our local heavy equipment operators, whether that’s logging, farming, you name it, anything that involves big machinery where it breaks down in the middle of nowhere and you can’t reach it. I want to be able to go to them instead of them having to fight the hassle of bringing that [machinery] out to a shop.”

Perdue is a Wirt County native who graduated from Wirt County High School. The fascination for her high school welding program is what drove her to pursue a degree in welding. Perdue currently lives at North Bend State Park, where she works as a trail coordinator.

Wright presented a customizable playset for children to help expand their creativity during playtime.

“I hope it encourages kids to engage in imaginative play,” said Wright. “The idea behind my project is to create a framework in which kids can play and develop stories and ideas.”

Wright grew up in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from Clearfield High School. He moved to Marietta with his wife to connect with family about 15 years ago, and he still lives there to this day. Wright is a Regents Bachelor of Arts (RBA) student at WVUP.

Dalrymple is creating a web development agency with one of his close friends.

“We’re a web development agency that plans to offer both the initial building and maintenance [of a website].

Dalrymple lives in Williamstown, where he graduated from Williamstown High School. Before coming to WVUP and majoring in Software Engineering, Dalrymple took a course in computer repair systems at the Caperton Center for Applied Technology, where he became captivated with the topic.

In stage two of the Pitch Competition, students will have the chance to win a grand prize of $10,000 and a spot in one of the WVUP ITC’s technology-based incubators to help them incubate their business from a concept to a company. The competition will take place on Friday, May 17, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Proud Room. To register, contact Charles Almond at calmond1@wvup.edu.

WVUP’s Pitch Competition is in partnership with NACCE’s Everyday Entrepreneur program. For more information about NACCE’s Everyday Entrepreneur program, visit https://www.nacce.com/EEVF