2 T H E

tiger hi-lineVOLUME 51 ISSUE 20

1015 Division St. Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613

UNI entrepreneurial center provides opportunities for students to implement business plans, create cash flow

Ben OlsonNews Editor

The John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center

(JPEC) may be one of the University of Northern Iowa’s best kept secrets. Back in the mid-’90s, Pappajohn, the president of Equity Dynamics, Inc., created five entrepre-neurial centers all over Iowa (including UNI) with the hopes of providing entrepre-neurship education, technol-ogy and capital investments for small businesses.

Housed on the second floor of the new JPEC build-ing, the Student Business Incubator (SBI) is a main attraction. The SBI offers 10 free office spaces to budding UNI student entrepreneurs to run their businesses, complete with desks, chairs, comput-ers, a small business resource library and two full-time professionals on staff within the office space. This allows students to focus on their business in a very nurturing environment.

Unfortunately, many UNI students spend their four or more years on campus oblivious to this opportunity provided at JPEC. “The sad-dest words I hear are from second-semester seniors who say, ‘I wish I knew about this earlier,’” Student Business Incubator Manager Laurie Watje said.

Katherine Cota-Uyar, Associate Director of JPEC at UNI, elaborated on the other innumerable services provided by the center. “The Entrepre-neurial Program at UNI offers a Certificate in Entrepreneur-ship; the Student Business In-cubator, which helps students develop and run a business; and many conferences, competitions, internships,

workshops, a youth camp and a student organization [the UNI Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization].”

Specifically, the SBI is an educational learning lab de-signed to inspire and educate students interested in starting their own business. One of the distinct advantages available to the student business owners in the SBI is their proximity to help and advice.SBI offers distinct advantages and safety net

“Iowa and Iowa State have similar programs, but we’re the only incubator in the system that is staffed full time with professionals right in the incubator space. That’s why we’re so successful. The owners need to have solutions immediately to maintain good customer service because that can affect their bottom lines. This easy access helps students because they can be reassured and can bounce off ideas all the time,” Watje said.

Another distinct advan-tage of launching a business in the SBI is the cushion it provides. Anyone trying to start a business in today’s economy would have to rent office space, buy technology and market the company. Basically, more money would be spent than money coming in. Fortunately, at the SBI, the office spaces are provided free of charge and most of the technology is provided, so even if a business fails, the monetary losses are mini-mized. Book Hatchery hatches into mainstream

More impressive than the amenities at the SBI are the student business owners themselves. Take Nick Cash, a 2007 graduate of Cedar Falls High School. Cash is

accommodating the e-book craze with his company, Book Hatchery (www.Book-Hatchery.com). “We help authors and small publishers sell books digitally to get their work on iPads, Nooks, Kindles and other devices. The idea is to make selling e-books as simple as possible because not many people are tech savvy,” Cash said. The system on Book Hatchery will take the author’s work and distribute it to major retailers, such as Amazon, Apple and Barnes and Noble.

With a copy of Starting an Online Business for Dummies on his office shelf, Cash noted that he has always possessed a creative, entrepreneurial spirit, and his interests have all led him to his current business knowledge base. “For me, I started building with Legos, and then I got into web sites and creating computer games in sixth grade. I then moved up to college-level computer programming when I was in

eighth grade. When I got to college at age 19, I worked with Lockheed Martin and then DISTek Integration. Without [those experiences], I wouldn’t understand the pro-cesses involved in business. It’s been a long time coming.”

Cash said his idea for Book Hatchery began when he was tutoring a group of students because he wanted to write them an e-book to use for studying. He soon realized money could be made from selling this book that he would have been giving away for free.

Book Hatchery offers several attractive advantages for authors as compared to the major publishing companies. “We’re a distributor, not a publisher. The authors keep the rights to their books and are self-publishers. We have no control over what the retailers take, though typically they take 30 to 70 percent of profits. We end up taking 15 percent of the net sales of

the books, or the amount left over after the retailers take their cut,” Cash said. This is a 180-degree turn from the practices of many publishers who can take up to 85 percent of the net sales of a published book.

Authors using Book Hatchery are also provided with transparency concerning the sales and profits made by their works. “We pay authors monthly, whereas typical pub-lishers pay the author two to four times per year and don’t provide any sales statistics to the authors. We update the statistics right away so the au-thors know how much money they will be receiving.”

Even though Cash has attained much success and recognition for his business plan (he has been recognized by Inc. and Entrepreneur mag-azines), the entrepreneurial roadway has not always been smooth. “Entrepreneurship is like a roller coaster. One day

See JPEC, page 4

UNI Student Business Incubator businesses- Book Hatchery is a website geared for self-publishers. Started by UNI junior Nick Cash, the site helps authors and small publishers sell books digitally for e-book devices. The site also regularly updates sales statistics for authors. Visit www.BookHatchery.com.- Harris Graphics, operated by Chris Harris, sells graphics and vinyls for race cars and other needs.- 3-D Glasses Galore, owned by Greg Jass, supplies glasses for the new 3-D televi-sions on the market.- SEO Solutions provides search engine optimization for online companies to in-crease their visibility on search engine websites such as Google. SEO was founded by Therese Kuster and Greg Jass. Visit www.seosolutionsllc.com.- GS Solutions, LLC is owned by Thomas Gilbert and Jeffrey Short. It provides houses an e-commerce site that sells breathalyzers for professional businesses and personal use. Visit www.breathalyzershop.com.- Myers Enterprises, owned by Jason Myers, is a holding company comprised of several independent businesses, including a restaurant ceiling tile cleaning business, Celing Pros ASAP, and a printing and a marketing company, Power Ink Marketing and Graphics, Inc.

Contact the Tiger Hi-LineThe Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes of

Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division St., Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Our website is www.hiline.co.nr. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Tuesdays to read in their DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) classes.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Hi-Line or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial staff view is presented weekly in the editorial labeled as Our View.

Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to the Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Thursday for publication the follow-ing Tuesday. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Include address and phone number for verification.

Editorial StaffEditors-in-Chief: Sara Gabriele and Ellen Gustavson

News Editor: Ben Olson and Sara GabrieleOpinion Editor: Meg Lane and Kaylee MicuSports Editor: Ben Olson and Allyson Vuong

Feature Editors: Ellen GustavsonEntertainment Editors: Meg Lane and Kaylee Micu

Photo Editor: Tracy Lukasiewicz

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tiger hi-lineApril 12, 2011

2 opinionour view

Nuclear power needs cautious oversight

Robotics team deserves praise for recent success

Lucas HamiltonStaff Writer

With the recent disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in Japan after the earthquake, nuclear power has become more scrutinized out of fear of public safety. Nuclear power continues to expand as a source of energy as people try to stray away from non-renewable en-ergy sources. As fossil fuels become less plentiful, Iowans may see the creation of another nuclear power plant. With one already in existence, Duane Arnold Energy Center, the proposal of creating new plants across the country is creating debate in legislatures everywhere. Nuclear power may become a viable source of alternative energy as long as the safety of the public is not jeopardized.

Here in Iowa, nine Demo-cratic senators sent a letter to their fellow congressmen

For the majority of the school year, the CFHS robotics team has worked long hours in order to pull off two stunning victories.

On March 9 through 12, the Swartdogs came in first place after their robot, Reptar, came in first place out of 55 other teams in the Kansas City regional. During the regional, Reptar, as well as the minibots Phil and Lil, had to score points by picking up and placing different shaped inner tubes on pegs at the end of the field. After this win, the team received the Motorola Quality Award for the overall quality of the robots.

On March 30-April 2, another stunning victory was pulled off at the Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional with 63 other teams. The team won all nine of its qualifying matches and six of seven matches in the eliminations rounds to claim the championship. The team again won the Motorola Qual-ity Award as well as the Website Award and the Autodesk Animation Award. Head coach Kenton Swartley was also surprised to receive the Woodie Flowers Award due to essays written by the robotics team members.

The Swartdogs deserve high praise and support for the light shed upon them by these recent wins. The Swartdogs will be participating in St. Louis for the international cham-pionship event from April 27-30. This will be their tough-est feat, as they’re up against 350 other teams from around the world. Good luck to the team on its quest to add to its unprecedented results.

expressing their growing concern of new bills making it easier for companies to build nuclear power plants in Iowa. Former Governor Chet Culver signed a bill last year allowing MidAmerican Energy to study the possibilities of building a nuclear power plant in Iowa. The senators asked to not advance any legislature al-lowing more plants to be built and to have a commission be created to investigate the issue further. Their concern is brought on partly from the nuclear crisis unfolding in Ja-pan as the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex continues to deteriorate after being struck by a tsunami caused by the earthquake.

The growing sentiment in the legislature leans towards the belief that nuclear power plants pose a potential threat to the environment and civil-ians that live in areas around the plants.

Rightfully, delays should

be made as a majority of people are skeptical of nuclear power as is. Everyone knows of the disaster of Chernobyl that destroyed the lives of so many Ukrainians when the reactor core was damaged and released large amounts of radiation. The accident cost $7 billion in property, and radioactive fallout was experi-enced in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, causing approximately 350,000 people to move to safer places. It is estimated that between 400,000 and 500,000 people have been exposed to very high amounts of radiation and hold a great risk of developing deadly cancers, leukemia and DNA abnormalities in the next 10 to 40 years.

Accidents happen, and unfortunately, nuclear ac-cidents end up causing major crises and problems for the surrounding areas that don’t

Proposed ban of animal confinement photos imposes unnecessary limits on speech, press

Maya AmjadiStaff Writer

Exposing the government engaging in wrongdoing or political scams can be pub-licly displayed in this country legally. Pictures and audio legally obtained often lead to discovering illegal action and interference with what the public is led to believe, but a bill that has already passed through the Iowa House with a 66-27 vote is trying to extend this limit.

Iowa’s new bill bans taking photographs, video recording and auto record-ing within the boundaries of agricultural farms in Iowa. Also, the bill makes the pos-session and distribution of these photos, video and audio illegal. The bill states that the first offense will be counted as a misdemeanor, but after that, a felony, punishable for up to five years in prison.

Never has a bill with restrictions as dead set as this

one, that bans photography and video, been made a law besides child pornography. The addressed bill will cover up any mistakes or sanitation scares in the farming industry that are dangerous and hazard-ous to the people’s health.

The media has the respon-sibility to expose and display the truth to its viewers, but banning photography and vi-sual aid on sites will prohibit journalists and photographers from doing their jobs. Cover-ing up what is really going on behind closed barn doors isn’t going to make them any less harmful. Consumers have a right to know what kind of corporation they are support-ing and what grade of meat, eggs, etc. they are cooking on their stove tops.

The Food Inc documentary that came out three years ago exposed certain corporations but gathered all the informa-tion from live interviews and footage inside the walls of various chicken farms and

meat cutting factories. Certain rules of the food industry were being violated, and the truth came out in the documentary that was watched across the nation. If this bill passes into law, no more documentaries of this kind will be made.

Banning cameras in agri-cultural farms is suspicious enough. Since when does the government ban cameras in places that have as important of a role to the public as what is being served on our dinner plates? Making a law to ban coverage on the truth sounds unconstitutional, and it is. For the absurd bill to become law, it will go through the Iowa Senate and then to the governor. But passing this bill will violate rights, cover up corporations to potentially allow them to sell suspicious meat and animal products and mark them with false labels such as “free range.” People die from consuming recalled food; making information ac-cessible to save lives is vital.

Nuclear power,Page 4

The robotics team with its robot, Reptar, after the Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional competition.

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tiger hi-lineApril 12, 2011

3sports

Men’s Soccer4/14, vs. Linn-Mar @ home, 5 p.m.Men’s Track4/12, Quadangular @ home, 5 p.m.4/16, Ames “Hi-Covey” Invite, 2 p.m.Men’s Tennis4/12, vs. CR Washington, 4 p.m.4/14, Dub. Senior @ home, 4 p.m.Women’s Soccer4/14, vs. Linn-Mar @ home. 4:15 p.m.4/15, North Scott Tournament, Women’s Track4/12, Ames Invite, 5 p.m. Women’s Golf4/12, MVC Triangular @ Dub. Hempstead, 3:15 p.m. 4/13, Metro Meet @ home, 3:15 p.m.Women’s Tennis4/12, vs. CR Washington @ home, 4 p.m.4/14, vs. Dub Senior, 4 p.m.

Tigersin Action

1. How do you feel after making a goal?“I feel that I’ve done something for the team, and I know we all work together to bring the ball up the field.”2. How do you prepare for a game?“We just try to focus really hard. Our coach is always telling us to focus and that we have game ahead of us and reminds us what were out there to do and work as a team to get a win.”3. What is the main goal for morning practices? “Just to get out there and get some conditioning in so that at afternoon practices we can focus more on tactical stuff like footwork, runs and that kind of stuff.

Athleteof

the Week

Kenna NelsonWomen’s Soccer

Senior

Tracy Lukasiewicz PhotosJammin’The women’s soccer team braved the fierce winds in adding to the competition from the Hudson Pirates at the jamboree on Monday, April 4. The team came out on top with a 2-1 effort. Sophomore Miranda Powell and senior Kenna Nelson made the scores. On the left is senior Desi Deery and at right is senior Claire Morris.

The women’s golf team easily outpaced the Waver-ly-Shell Rock Go-Hawks in the first match of the season on April 5.

The team won by 30 strokes, and junior Taylor Roberts earned the medalist honors with her total of 39. She was closely followed by sophomore Megan Brewer with a 40. Senior Sam Heinen and sophomore Allison Rolinger notched 42s. Senior Sonja Przybyls-ki shot a 43, and sophomore Natalie Rokes added her 49.

The team will be par-ticipating in meets until the end of May, which means playing in two meets per week. This season, the team is made up of 21 girls with only two seniors. The seniors on the team are Przybylski and Heinen.

The team has had a good record in the last couple of years and has finished

seventh at State in the past two years.

“We hope to return to State this year and have an even better finish but real-ize that we need to take it one meet at a time,” coach Megan Youngkent said.

Even before state, the girls have to get past regionals, and they’ve put in a good amount of work during their practices and are keeping their heads up for the future.

“I think there’s a lot of talent on the team. Every-one is good at something, and we could go far,” sophomore Abby Burgart said.

“Right now, our big-gest meet isn’t State —it’s the Regional meet to get to State. We’ve got to do well there to even have a chance, and getting back to the State meet after the Regional meet is one of our big focuses,” Young-kent said.

Jessica DallyStaff Writer

When the job of a new ten-nis coach popped up for Cedar Falls, Athletic Director Gary Koenen knew exactly who to call. He knew someone who has been playing for 27 years and who was more than quali-fied: Brian Suiter.

Suiter came to Cedar Falls this year with many new plans for the men’s tennis team. “Hopefully, I can add a new perspective, an emphasis on teamwork and a vision of the ultimate goal of winning a state championship,” Suitor said.

He is going to focus on conditioning the team and on doubles play.

“We want to qualify as many individuals and doubles teams that we can for State, and qualify for team State,” he said.

He also stated that there is a lot of talent on the team, but they are still young and have a lot of work to do to achieve the ultimate goal.

“I am excited to be the new men’s tennis coach at Cedar Falls, and am looking forward to seeing this team of students achieve their goals,” Suiter said.

Sophomore Rex Ju com-mented on the team progress-ing and becoming closer and better as a whole.

“The team is a lot more closer than previous years, and there is a lot more one on one individual coaching, which helps out a lot,” Ju said.

The boys get together and have team meals that allow them to bond and get to know each other.

Ju also noted that “the practices are longer and also very organized, and that allows the team to be more fo-cused.” He said coach Suiter is doing a really good job and he knows his stuff, and that helps them to focus on the ultimate goal.

At the Wahawk Invite, the team placed 2nd overall, and in doubles they placed 3rd. The next meet is on Tuesday, April 12, at Cedar Rapids Washington.

Women’s golf starts with win at Waverly

New coach takes over for men’s tennis team

Sandra Omari-BoatengStaff Writer

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tiger hi-lineApril, 12 2011

4feature

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Nuclear power from page 2go away within a few years. Nuclear waste remains for thousands of years as a ra-dioactive hazard. This makes it incredibly important when

considering the safety of the public. If something were to leak, surrounding areas would be devastated and all land would become unusable for

everyone. The importance of safety is critical when talking about nuclear waste. Rules and regulations for nuclear power plants need to heavy

and very limited during the development of proper waste containment methods. If safety rules and regulations are worked out and put into

place, Iowa could very pos-sibly see the development of nuclear power plants within the next decade.

you feel like you are conquering the world, but the next day you feel like you’re going to fly off and die,” Cash said. Despite the hurdles (Cash is now focusing on raising enough money to hire three full-time employees and one intern), the SBI has provided enormous support.

“The mentorship from Laurie and Katherine is great. With their amount of experi-ence, they can steer you away from common problems and give information for free. I can’t put a number on the amount of money they’ve saved me.”Breathalyzers provide lucrative website

Two office spaces down from Cash, Thomas Gilbert and Jeffrey Short (another CFHS alum), have made their mark with GS Solutions, LLC, and they have generated a lot of buzz with Breatha-lyzerShop.com. “We are an e-commerce site, and we carry multiple brands of breathalyz-ers for personal use,” Gilbert said. Short observed that OWI charges appeared to be on the rise, and he began market-ing towards the AlcoHAWK model of personal breatha-lyzer, manufactured by Q3 Innovations in Independence, Iowa. As of now, the duo sells two additional brands – BACTRACK, based out of California, and Lifeloc, based

out of Colorado.Interestingly, tighter drunk

driving restrictions have actually boosted business for Short and Gilbert. Many states now have laws requiring DUI offenders to install alcohol ignition interlocks to their vehicles where the person blows into a small breatha-lyzer that prevents ignition if a certain blood alcohol content is detected. “We have just sold to people who already have the interlocks so they can double check again before driving,” Gilbert said. Moreover, the economic woes of many individuals have appeared to correlate with per-sonal breathalyzer purchases. “If anything, the economy has helped us. People don’t want to risk getting OWI fines or records because jobs are so scarce,” Short said.

The duo spends at least 40 hours per week attending to their business on top of college courses, and they are constantly trying to improve their website for efficiency and user-ease. While the workload can be intense, the SBI helps relieve much of the burden. “We’ve been provided professional office space, computers, advice and con-nections. This all adds up and allows us to focus more on our success,” Short said.

Overall, the benefits of starting up shop have out-weighed any sacrifices. “You know you have a good site

when you’re making money while you’re sleeping,” Gil-bert said.SBI requirements and additional programs

Before students can oc-cupy office space in the SBI, they must proceed with an application process by log-ging onto JPEC.org, viewing

a PowerPoint presentation and taking a short quiz. This is mainly for Watje to make sure that students are taking the process seriously from day one. In addition, potential business owners must be able to describe their business con-cept in a very detailed, con-cise manner. “What I’m really looking at is the explanation of their business concept, and [applicants] are required to explain the concept in a maximum of two sentences. This helps me know if they’ve thought it through. If students can’t do this, they will auto-

matically be put in the Affliate Program,” Watje said.

The Affiliate Program is very similar to the SBI program, with the main dif-ference being students do not have office space within the Incubator. However, the affiliate students can use the SBI mailboxes so they have a

profes-sional address, and they can use the SBI board-rooms to conduct meetings when the SBI staff are pres-ent.

More-over, students

in the SBI must meet certain requirements in order to stay in the program. “The business owners must earn 50 points per semester to have some skin in the game since the office space is free. First, the students must work on their business plan, and then they must set goals for the semester and figure out specific steps to reach that goal. The owners also earn points by meeting with guests who want to tour the Incubator,” Watje said.

These requirements are mainly to the benefit of busi-ness owners to aid in their

business plans and attract attention to the SBI. In ad-dition, Watje and Cota-Uyar meet with the business owners when needed, keeping an “open door” policy where students are free to pop in their offices at any time with questions. “The business own-ers must meet with me once per month to make sure steps are being taken to reach their goals. I’m basically holding their feet to the fire, giving them accountability and the skill set of long-term plan-ning. I will meet as long as they want,” Watje said.

Overall, what makes the JPEC and SBI so impactful is the fact that people can be cre-ative and innovate in almost any work setting and facet of life. “There are people who should be employees. Then, there are people who want to be business owners. Both are good options, but you have to understand who you are. Even if you’re a person who wants to work for an owner, you can still be entrepreneurial within that role,” Cota-Uyar said.

Cota-Uyar encourages future students to explore the options at JPEC and the SBI because self-gratification and success run abundant through-out the halls.

“Come visit us and work with our center. We’ve helped people do it right, and we can make your dream become a reality. We’ve done this a lot.”

JPEC from page 1

“There are people who should be employees. Then, there are people

who want to be business owners. Both are good

options, but you have to understand who you are.”

— Katherine Cota-UyarAssociate Director of JPEC