Winner of alum's 'creative challenge' claims her prize

The winner of the "creativity/entrepreneurship challenge" issued by Skidmore alumnus Ken Freirich '90 earlier this fall claimed her prize Sunday. Molly O'Brien '12 took her father to New Meadowlands Stadium where, in a luxury suite, they watched the New York Jets come up with another how-did-that-happen 30-27 victory in the last ten seconds of the game against Houston.

O'Brien won the free VIP tickets in mid-October. That's when Freirich, a serial entrepreneur and executive who is currently executive vice president of Health Monitor Network, returned to the campus for a two-day residency. He met with students in several Management and Business classes, led a career networking session, delivered a public lecture, and issued his challenge. Prizes, he declared, would be awarded to those students who exhibited the most creativity in describing either a new business they could start while at Skidmore or after graduation or their "dream career."

Presentations, he made clear, could be in Powerpoint, song, poem, or picture.

Although they would have less than 24 hours to prepare, 18 students signed up and made their presentations, which were to be between five and seven minutes.

O'Brien was the overall winner with her entry in the "Dream Job" category. She impressed the judges with a poem in which she adroitly articulated her passion to be a writer. Having never been to an NFL game, she took the Jets tickets.

Christina Fagan '12. a business major and art history minor, was awarded the prize for "Most Intriguing Business Idea" for her idea of a company that would facilitate the rental of art work from museums for by businesses. She took the iPad.

Allan Wu '11, a senior business major and member of the campus Asian Cultural Association, was declared by the judges to have the "Most Inspiring Idea": a vision of promoting a better understanding of the Asian college experience by bringing to the campus an Asian hip hop group. He took the portable video recorder.

Ian Ritchey '11, a business major, came up with the "Most Creative Business Idea": a high-end social network for golfers which would be the purveyor of all that is "good, bad, current, and popular on the links from the municipal ranks to the Devonshire."

O'Brien called the contest "inspiring."

"It forced me to think about what I want to do when I graduate and made me realize, hey, there's nothing wrong with doing what you love."

Watching the game from Health Monitor Network's VIP suite was pretty great, too, she said.

"I can't believe rooms like that would be in a football stadium. You could watch the game from inside or in seats right outside, too, which were padded, and that was wonderful. How crazy that it was my first NFL game and I got to watch it in such a cool way? It was an amazing experience."