On November 11, the Office of Engaged Learning proudly welcomed the inaugural cohort of the Women’s Innovative Network (W.I.N), a new initiative designed to empower undergraduate women at SMU as they pursue bold ideas in research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The gathering brought together students, faculty, mentors, and campus leaders for the first official pinning ceremony of W.I.N members.
The program opened with W.I.N President Ryland Adzich ’28, who shared the vision and goals of the organization, followed by keynote remarks from Dr. Jennifer Ebinger, Executive Director of the Office of Engaged Learning. Members then connected over dinner, shared their interests, and learned about the opportunities available through W.I.N The pinning ceremony served as a meaningful moment, symbolizing each student’s entry into a supportive network committed to elevating women’s voices and ideas on campus.
Reflecting on the event, Dr. Robin Poston, Associate Provost and Dean of the Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, said “A wonderful evening at the Women’s Innovative Network (W.I.N) Welcome Session at SMU! It was inspiring to join so many talented women leaders, students, and faculty to celebrate innovation, collaboration, and empowerment. Grateful for the words of encouragement from Dr. Jennifer Ebinger and the leadership of Ryland Adzich and the W.I.N team for hosting such a meaningful event.”
W.I.N is committed to:
Connecting members with workshops, events, fellowships, expert mentorship, and campus resources that can strengthen and advance their projects.
Partnering with local high schools to help younger students develop research and entrepreneurial ideas, creating a multi-generational model of empowerment.
Encouraging women at SMU to showcase their work, through research poster sessions, entrepreneurship programming, and campus pitch competitions that amplify their innovation.
The W.I.N Welcome Session marks the beginning of a transformative year. We can’t wait to see how this cohort grows and leads on campus and beyond.
Yesterday 13 undergraduate teams shared their entrepreneurial visions at the 2025 Big iDeas Pitch Competition. Each team presented an idea inspired by personal experiences or real-world problems, with solutions designed to create impact and change the game.
Congratulations to the winners:
Elevated, Diyaa Shah, Neema Mwangi, and Linh Vu Impact Threads Apparel, Daniel Kauffman and William Wright Sanum, Carlos Alvarez Maumejean HAWTCHA, William Zhao Grace, Cecilia Tipping BOOTCAMPUS, Johnna Sterett MIO, Iyanna Christie Quoting AI, Holden Price SunTap, Manuel Albarran
A special thanks to our judges (all SMU alumni!) Josh Baier (TIMIO News), Jasleen Dhillon (Assistant Director, Hunt Institute), and Moe Janmohammad (Adversarial Security Lead, Toyota), as well as the SMU Women’s Innovative Network for their support.
The Office of Engaged Learning invites students, faculty, staff, and families to attend the 2025 Big iDeas Pitch Contest on Thursday, October 30, 2025, from 2:00–4:30 p.m. in the Hunt Institute (Caruth 206).
The Big iDeas Pitch Contest is the starting point for undergraduates interested in entrepreneurship at SMU. Students will present their innovative ideas for products, services, or initiatives that address real-world challenges. Each team will deliver a 90-second pitch to a panel of judges for the chance to receive up to $1,000 in seed funding to develop their ideas further.
Part of SMU’s Big iDeas program, this competition helps students take their first steps in turning ideas into action. Everyone is invited to attend and support these emerging innovators.
The Office of Engaged Learning held its annual Big iDeas Business Plan Competition on October 3 where 11 teams pitched their business venture to a panel of expert judges. Congratulations to the winners of the Fall 2025 competition:
Thank you to all of the students, staff, faculty, and family who attended. A special thanks to our judges Jessica Burnham (Program Director, Master of Arts in Design and Innovation), Dr. Emily Choi (Director, Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship), Bhavna Kuma (Head of Accelerator Programs, SPEARS Institute), and Dr. Seth Osborn (Director, Deason Innovation Gym).
The SMU Entrepreneurship Ecosystem is excited to announce the first round of student ventures selected for the 2025-2026 Entrepreneurship Varsity Team.
The Varsity Team provides a platform to showcase and support SMU’s top undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurs as they compete in regional, Texas-based, and national pitch competitions.
Selected teams receive tailored coaching, mentorship, and funding from across the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem to strengthen their ventures and prepare for success on bigger stages.
We are proud to recognize the ventures chosen in this first round of selections:
Focus Path — Founded by Travis Pryor ’26 (Lyle School of Engineering)
Ayoola Olaosebikan, Travis Pryor, Christy Marunza
InfoSavvy — Founded by Yaw Boateng ’27 (Lyle School of Engineering)
Inzwi Zunga, Yaw Boateng, Ameen Zia, Yash Shah
Popkle — Co-founded by Kwanghyun (KH) Kim ’26 (MBA, Cox School of Business) and Taezja Phelan (JD/MBA Candidate, Dedman School of Law / Cox School of Business)
Kwanghyun (KH) Kim, Taezja Phelan
These student founders will represent SMU as they continue developing their ventures and apply for pitch competitions across the country.
A second round of Varsity Team applications will open in late November, with additional teams announced in December.
Please join us in congratulating the first round of Varsity Team members as they take this next step in their entrepreneurial journey!
The Big iDeas Business Plan Competition will be taking place Friday, October 3 from 10am – 1pm in the Texana Room located on the second floor of Fondren Library. Advanced undergraduate student ventures will present a 4-minute pitch to a panel of judges for a chance to win up to $5,000 in seed funding.
The event is open to the public. Students, families, faculty, and staff are invited to attend and support these student entrepreneurs. RSVPs are encouraged, but walk-ins are welcome.
The Big iDeas program empowers students to transform their entrepreneurial ideas into impactful ventures. We recently caught up with Ryland Adzich, a first-year student at SMU who jumped into her co-curricular journey early — not only as a Big iDeas participant but also as an Engaged Learning Fellow. Ryland shared the inspiration behind her philanthropic organization and gave us a glimpse into the meaningful work she is implementing across the DFW metroplex.
In Fall 2024, Ryland was the top winner of the Big iDeas Pitch Competition, earning $1,000 from the Big iDeas Program, along with an additional $1,000 Boost Award from the Spears Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership for having the “Most Inspiring Idea” of the competition. In the upcoming academic year, Ryland will serve as the President of the Women’s Innovative Network – a new student organization and network that empowers women to innovate, connect, and support each other in their entrepreneurial and research endeavors.
Q: You’re wrapping up your first year at SMU! Tell us about what why you chose SMU in the first place.
Being invited as a Dedman Scholar, it was nice to feel wanted by a community and wanted by SMU as much as I wanted them. The research opportunities with faculty as an undergraduate student was another big one. I also love Dallas. I love the community of people and the students here. I really feel like people are trying to work together to uplift students to succeed on a national and international level.
Q: What is the organization you started and what inspired the social impact element of it?
The Creative Destination is a philanthropic organization that works to create literacy spaces in underserved communities and in laundromats. Think books, shelves, and posters — essentially a mini library. The reason why we chose laundromats was because those can be everyday spaces to children. Many times, children are spending significantly more time in those “everyday spaces” than in the classroom. So if we can encourage reading and parent-to-child communications, that will increase success in and outside of the classroom.
While I was in high school, I worked with a professor at the NYU Steinhardt School of Education in one of my tech labs in school. She had introduced this idea about literacy spaces in laundromats on the East Coast, but I wanted to adapt that so it would make sense for The Creative Destination and underserved communities in California. I was already thinking about my idea before the tech lab, but seeing this on a smaller scale on the East Coast gave me inspiration to go through with it.
Q:Tell us about your recent partnership with The Creative Destination and The Hockaday School in Dallas?
The Hockaday School already has an Institute for Social Impact. I was interested in mentoring younger students but also getting feedback for The Creative Destination. I get to work with girls who are already interested in giving back to their community. If I can enhance that and help them hold on to that through having them help me build these literacy spaces in laundromats across the city, then that’s important to me.
Ryland speaking and doing an activity at The Hockaday School in Fall 2024.
Q: What has been the most rewarding part about starting your own philanthropic organization from the ground up?
Getting to work with other data-driven people has been very exciting. Also, getting to see the benefits to people that are frequenting these laundromat spaces. Whether that be customers, or laundromat owners seeing their spaces be improved by encouraging reading, I just go back to how important building community to me. Laundromats can be a great place of building community. You know, you’re sitting there for maybe anhour and a half waiting for your clothes to dry and maybe talking to people. Hopefully just a little bit of time every day to read instead of being on a phone or a tablet can encourage kids to keep reading.
Q: What have you been able to do with the award money you received from The Big iDeas Program?
That funding has been helpful because we have been able to fund 5 new literacy spaces in laundromats across the country. Four will be in Dallas and one will be in California. Some of the girls that I’m mentoring at The Hockaday School are helping me with the Dallas spaces. I’m hopeful for next year as I continue to establish myself more in Dallas to grow my laundromat network.
In the next three months, I hope to give The Creative Destination a fresh new look. I want to use some of the funding to do logo and media updates to prepare for the upcoming year. I highly recommend bringing your ideas to the Big iDeas Pitch Competition.
What advice would you give to a first year student, specifically a student in Dedman, who is wanting to build their business when they come to SMU?
I would say don’t box yourself into one set way to think about a business. Business principles can be applied to organizations, programs, and initiatives that are outside of a traditional business framework. Operating The Creative Destination as a business is something that I want to continue to work on. Also, I would encourage students to just have fun on campus. Time really does fly, so take stock and enjoy all of the resources on campus. It’s all at our fingertips and we can make so many different connections.
Interested in bringing your ideas to life? Learn more about Big iDeas and other opportunities through The Office of Engaged Learning by visiting our website.
The Office of Engaged Learning held its first Spring Big iDeas Pitch Competition on Friday, April 11, where 10 student teams pitched their new idea to a panel of judges in 90 seconds.
Congratulations to the four winners of the Spring 2025 Pitch Competition:
You might be wondering why the Office of Engaged Learning is hosting a Big iDeas Pitch Contest in the spring semester instead of the fall. We are excited to share what is changing and why!
As Big iDeas program continues to evolve, we’re expanding our collaboration across the SMU entrepreneurship ecosystem— including The SMU Impact Lab, The Spears Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and others. These strategic partnerships are helping us refine our focus: supporting students at the earliest stages of ideation and positioning them to move forward with confidence. Our goal is to guide students in shaping bold new ideas and prepare them to pursue advanced funding and specialized coaching through these next-level programs.
We are also embracing a new model for our pitch competition cycle. Instead of offering only one opportunity per academic year to pitch an idea, students will now have the opportunity to pitch an idea once in the fall and once in the spring semester.
Additionally, we are moving the Big iDeas Business Plan Competition to SMU Family Weekend! This exciting new timing gives us a chance to showcase our most advanced student ventures to a wider audience — including families, alumni, and the full SMU community.
A special thanks to our judges for this competition: Jake Batsell, Justin Childress, Jennifer Ebinger, and Marissa Heyl and the SMU Impact Lab for sponsoring an additional $500 award to Focus Path for having a creative social impact edge on their idea.
To learn more about the Big iDeas Program, visit us at smu.edu/bigideas.
The start of April was a big one for SMU Big iDeas students, who showcased their ventures on two national stages of collegiate entrepreneurship.
At the ACC InVenture Prize Competition, hosted by the University of Notre Dame, the TIMIO News team – Josh Baier, Abbie Ellermeier, and JustusWoods – represented SMU as they pitched their venture alongside student teams from 12 other ACC universities.
Left to Right (Abbie Ellermeier, Justus Woods, Josh Baier)
Josh Baier (’24), CEO and Founder, said, “My favorite part of the ACC InVenture was meeting a community of young entrepreneurs. It was incredible to meet other people my age living through the same ups and downs of the entrepreneurship cycle.”
Abbie Ellermeier, Lead Designer, said, “My favorite part was seeing all the innovative ideas the other groups presented. It was so fun to be around so many bright, young minds all trying to make the world a better place.”
Justus Woods, Lead Campaign Manager, said he enjoyed “getting to meet so many world changers who wanted to make a positive impact in the world. Their creativity and perseverance was incredibly infectious.”
Back in Texas, Senior Jude Lugo and Junior Ryland Robb took the stage with 41 other finalist companies from all over the world at the TCU Values and Ventures Competition in Fort Worth to pitch LectureLogger, an app that tracks attendance and promotes student wellness for colleges and universities.
Left to Right (Ryland Robb, Jude Lugo)
Lecture Logger had an exceptional showing at the competition. After pitching in the lightning rounds, they advanced to place in the top quarter of participants over the weekend.
Judges praised the team’s strong engagement, confident delivery, and clear grasp of both the facts and the business model. The pitch was visually compelling, and both presenters brought a sharp, business-focused approach.
They also recognized Lecture Logger’s broad value for students – supporting wellbeing and academic success – and, interestingly, highlighted its specific relevance for student-athletes as a cost effective way to track attendance and ensure NCAA compliance.
A big congratulations to all of our Big iDeas students making their mark all across the country!
SMU Alumnus Joshua Baier (’24) and his team, Justus Woods and Abbie Ellermeier, are set to take the stage at the ACC InVenture Prize Competition on Wednesday, April 2nd.
To vote for TIMIO for the People’s Choice Award, text “SMU” to 415-965-7445. The voting will open at 12:01am on Monday, March 31st and will close approximately at 6:45PM CST on Wednesday, April 2nd.
The competition will begin at 6:00pm CST on Wednesday, April 2nd. To watch the competition live, use this link.
Download TIMIO today from the app store or as a Chrome extension!
