by Jen Lebron
January 22, 2008

Stephen Miller and his co-worker Nate Friend were waiting in line at a restaurant, on a break from their summer jobs as counselors at Kanakuk Kamps in Bayfield, Colo. The two started talking about how they wanted a casual place where they could hang out and eat, rather than just drink coffee.

The idea for the “cereal café” was born.

“We kind of joked around a little bit about it at first,” said Miller. “But the more we thought about it, the more we thought, ‘this could legitimately happen.’”

Miller wants to create a cereal café that would offer a wide array of coffee options, patrons would get to choose from many different kinds of cereals and customize them with fruits, nuts or other toppings.

Miller and Friend came up with the idea more than a year ago, but now has become a real, marketable business plan through the Fermanian Business Center’s Entrepreneurial Enrichment Program.

The EEP was designed last year to teach PLNU undergraduate and graduate students about starting their own businesses. According to a faculty and staff information guide produced by the Fermanian Business Center, the purpose of the EEP is “to provide a dynamic venue for enhanced collaboration, communication and cooperation among student-entrepreneurs...”

The EEP allows students to come up with their own ideas for new businesses and connects them with business professionals from all over California and several other states.

Randy Ataide, Fermanian Business Center director and PLNU associate professor of business, came up with the idea for the EEP after noting that universities with larger business programs like San Diego State University held annual competitions for student-created business plans. 

“Most university projects usually result in a winner-takes-all $5,000 check at the end of the school year,” said Ataide. “We say that all eight plans that are being worked on right now and are being mentored by business professionals are the victory.”

Unlike similar programs, a student does not need to be a business major to participate in EEP.

Interested students must submit an application that details the basic concept for their business plan. The program will only accept eight to 12 business plans per year.

This May, students participating in the EEP will present their business plans to an advisory board made up of business professionals who will determine what fraction of the EEP’s $60,000 endowment will be given to one or several of the student groups, said Ataide.

This year, the EEP has a total of eight different student projects ranging from Miller’s cereal café, a surf school, and a non-profit organization that would help provide medical care to Third World countries.

The EEP is accepting applicants for the 2008-2009 school year. The deadline to apply is Jan. 30.