AIA's Shark Tank '17
Last Wednesday AIA hosted Bentley’s first ever Shark Tank for Bentley organizations!
This great opportunity allowed Bentley organizations to pitch to a table of five panelists or “sharks” an idea for brand new events to be hosted on campus. Nine different Bentley orgs were represented at this event. The Allocation and Internal Audit committee (AIA)’s focuses for the year are to promote the arts, to promote diversity and diversity thoughts, and to promote a better Bentley. The event went swimmingly with six orgs’ events being totally funded and more!
The Sharks were from all different departments and brought diverse perspectives to the table. This included student, Michael King (’17), Professor Karen Osterheld, Anthony Martin from Res Life, Nina De Agrela from the MultiCultural Center, and Dean Shepardson. Each Shark was passionate about separate events, which resulted in six orgs being funded individually as well as some being funded by more than one Shark. Each org had 10 minutes to pitch their event and budget and then there was Q&A between the orgs and Sharks. Michael Clement (’17), President of AIA, says, “The event forced people to think outside of the box. All of the thought and effort put into it was really exciting.” The Sharks were given $2,000 each to fund the org event of their choosing. For example, the African Student Association received money to hold a gala and Bentley’s radio station received money to host a live radio show and have a big event on the green space.
All of the orgs funded were PRIDE, KSA, CASA, ASA, APO SAGE, and WBTY. This was a great event to learn about many of the cultural orgs on campus in addition to many others. Mike King (’21), one of the Sharks, comments, “The new orgs may not be familiar with pitching to AIA so this was great for newer orgs to experience.” King and Clement both agree that this would be a great event to see in years to come, and has a lot of potential.
Make sure to look out for these org’s events this year funded by AIA’s Shark Tank 2017!
