New student-run café offers campus, community more options

AMES, Iowa - Students from the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Learning Community at Iowa State will hold a grand opening of the new Barista Café at 4 p.m., Monday, Feb. 26, in Buchanan Hall on campus.

Rodenburg

Scott Rodenburg, a freshman in pre-business prepares for the opening of the Barista Café at Buchanan Hall. Photo by Bob Elbert.

The student-run café will serve coffees, espresso and tea and other hot and cold beverages, as well as baked and pre-packaged snacks. It will be open Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 5 to 11 p.m., as well as Sunday from 5 to 11 p.m.

The café will accept cash and ISU Dining Dollars and is open to the public.

Planning has been underway for more than a year and the students are getting ready for the big day.

"It's been a long process," said Ashley Hunter, a freshman from Belmond majoring in community and public health and also a peer mentor for the learning community who has helped get the café ready. "We're all excited to open up."

Housed in Buchanan Hall, the entrepreneurship learning community is one of more than 70 organizations on campus involving students and faculty who work on a particular area of interest. Iowa State's learning communities are ranked among the top 25 in the nation according to U.S News and World report magazine.

The Pappajohn Center _ an organization that helps foster entrepreneurial talents in students around the state _ provided the learning community with some of the resources to get the café going.

"Students learn many things about the entrepreneurial spirit in classrooms," said Judi Eyles, assistant director of the Pappajohn Center and coordinator of the learning community. "But this is a real chance to get experience in an actual commercial venture. There is simply no better way to learn than by doing it yourself."

Unlike other learning communities, the Barista Café is a for-profit enterprise. The student-operators themselves must buy into the ownership of the café. When the students leave or graduate, they will sell their stock in the café to incoming entrepreneur students.

The café opening kicks off a series of events around Iowa State University and central Iowa to mark Entrepreneurship Week USA, a national effort involving more than 700 organizations in all 50 states.

Tuesday, Feb. 27

11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Sun Room, Memorial Union

Speaker--Atul Gupta, CEO of Advanced Technologies Group, Inc., one of the fastest-growing private companies in the country, will share his business story and discuss how to maximize business returns through technology.

Friday, March 2

9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Olmstead Center, Drake University, Des Moines

Conference--The Pappajohn Center at Drake will host the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Iowa Conference where students will have the chance to hear from entrepreneurs and learn about marketing and financial aspects of owning a business.

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