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Photo of WVU students standing over blankets they made

From Business to Blankets

From Business to Blankets

For over a decade, Mountaineers have become Blanketeers. 

Each fall, Teaching Associate Professor Li Wang’s Business Honors students come together for their first college-level business project – one focused on community service. The students partner with local non-profits to create a meaningful, tangible impact on the community. 

One of the non-profits that students have the opportunity to work with is Project Linus of Monongalia/Preston Counties, led by the Chambers College’s director of information technology, Carole Kiger.  

Kiger, who has served as PLMPC’s coordinator since 2006, works with her team to “provide love, a sense of security, warmth, and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer Blanketeers.”

This year, students working with Project Linus focused on honing their marketing and event planning skills to organize and execute a blanket-making event. 

“They advertise, create the materials and run the blanket day,” Kiger said. “On the day of, they handle all the coordination – just like they would any other business event. 

“Our mission is to provide a rewarding and fun service opportunity for the students, while also benefiting the children.” 

Over the years, Dr. Wang’s students have helped make around 1,000 blankets – and in doing so, have brought comfort to children facing difficult circumstances.

First Pitch

Supported by Silicon Valley CEO Ray Zinn, the first ZinnStarter Pitch Competition, hosted by the LaunchLab, gave aspiring collegiate entrepreneurs an opportunity to win cash to build their ideas into the next groundbreaking product or business. Winners included: First place ($2,500): Emma Adams, WVU animal and nutritional sciences major, and her business idea PetRecord, which provides universal medical records for pets in emergency situations; second place ($1,500): Cameron Keefe, global supply chain management major, and her idea ThermoRoller, which combines physical massage with temperature control to relieve sore muscle pain; and third place ($1,000) to the team of Austin Davis, Anne Byer and Emily Thomas, from the University of Charleston, and their idea Second Chance, a program that helps give active control back to people with quadriplegia and paraplegia. 

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I Scream, You Scream

Move over cones and milkshakes, there is a new way to enjoy ice cream – rolled! Marketing student and Morgantown native Tyler Lalka is bringing rolled ice cream to the hills of Morgantown and nearby cities with his business Rolling Hills Ice Cream. Lalka originally saw the concept being done in larger cities and thought to himself, “Mountaineers need this,” and opened his ice cream truck in April 2021. Not only is the ice cream mixed with toppings on top of a negative-five degree plate and rolled into pieces, but his truck also allows him to roll to birthday parties, weddings, farmer’s markets, fairs, office gatherings and more. “It was a dream of mine to bring this to Morgantown and I decided to go mobile because it would give me the opportunity to meet my customers where they are,” he said. The signature menu (which ice cream lovers can get any time) includes salted caramel pretzel, Oreo, peanut butter cup, s'mores and Nutella banana. On top of those flavors, individuals can add other sweet or savory ingredients. Lalka will graduate with a degree in marketing in December 2022. 

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Dressing the Part

For some, getting a new job means splurging on a new wardrobe. For us here at the Chambers College, our new building came with a new closet – the Career Closet.

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All Women, All Business

Prior to 2019, West Virginia University was the only Big 12 school without a student organization dedicated to women in business. That fall semester, Deanna Crumm – now a marketing and organizational leadership senior – and other young women in the Chambers College began the University’s first Women in Business student organization to foster a supportive community of women and equip them with the knowledge, skills and network to succeed and follow their passions. 

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From West Virginia to Japan

A May 2023 graduate in finance and economics earned a highly competitive U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to travel abroad to learn a new language and immerse into cultural experiences. 

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