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Springfield College Students Recognized for Entrepreneurial Spirit With 2022 Grinspoon Awards

Springfield College News

May 6, 2022 (05/06/2022) — Contact: Office of Communications

Steve Roulier (413) 748-3717 (office), (413) 896-3298 (cell)

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Five students from Springfield College received awards from the Grinspoon Entrepreneurship Initiative for their creativity and entrepreneurial spirit at a reception April 27 at the Log Cabin in Holyoke with 14 colleges and universities from western Massachusetts competing.

The Grinspoon Entrepreneurship Initiative honors area college students who exemplify entrepreneurial excellence and highlights the importance of entrepreneurship.

Spirit Award: Senior Business Management Major Michael Guzman, House of Fitteds

House of Fitteds offers a wide variety of hats as well as urban streetwear and popular shoe brands. It has 100,000-plus followers through its various social media channels. Seventy percent of sales come from its website shipping nationwide in the United States and Canada. The firm currently has a brick and mortar located in New Britain, Conn. Guzman recently opened a second location in the Holyoke Mall in Massachusetts in March 2022. The customer base for House of Fitteds comes from all over the nation. Guzman credits his work ethic to his family, noting his parents came to the U.S. from Ecuador and started a business of their own.

Spirit Award: Sophomore Digital Media Major Dante DiGiovanni, Dante's Journeys

Dante's Journeys is a commercial photography business, which specializes in product, brand, and lifestyle photography. DiGiovanni works with businesses to generate high-quality images for their marketing needs. He is motivated by this work because it allows him to create content that tells a story, or to take a brand into new directions, by photographing them in their natural adventure habitat. His clients have come from all over New York, Colorado, and New England.

Spirit Award: Senior Health Sciences Major Daniel Cavallaro, DC Fit

Daniel Cavallaro's fitness business is run completely online. He uses a phone app, a website, and social media to deliver four main pillars to his business: identity, attraction, conversion, and delivery. He helps committed individuals lose weight and keep it off. Cavallaro is a National Academy of Sports Medicine-certified personal trainer. He focuses on the value that his business provides, proof of how people have benefited from the business, and a connection he can make to his clients. In working with clients, he reviews that particular person's challenges and he explains how his program will help him/her overcome those challenges.

Concept Award: Senior Business Management Major Liam Coleman, Mailman Media

Mailman Media is a digital multimedia marketing agency that helps businesses and individuals automate digital assets to allow them to tell the best story possible. For business clients, Mailman Media plays an integral role in their marketing strategy. Coleman's firm differentiates itself by providing its clients with quality content that is affordable and offers a quick turnaround. His New England-area clients include barbershops, car dealerships, record labels, medical offices, and marinas. At Springfield College, Coleman served as the social media liaison for the Department of Business Management, which he credits as another avenue of creativity and practice to advance his abilities.

Pitch Competition Selection: First-Year Graduate Athletic Counseling and Mental Health Counseling Major Derek Wilson

This year's Springfield College Pitch Competition representative was Derek Wilson, a graduate student in the Athletic Counseling and Clinical Mental Health program. A former wrestler and Dance minor here at Springfield College, Derek uses his athletic and dance background as the foundation for his business idea, Visualize. Derek's business concept is for a mental performance service where he would provide the opportunity for 30 minute zoom sessions to learn performance skills including visualization and goal setting. His business would also incorporate other mental performance skills including but not limited to mantras and other forms of self-talk.

Springfield College is an independent, nonprofit, coeducational institution founded in 1885. Approximately 4,100 students, including 2,500 full-time undergraduate students, study at its main campus in Springfield, Mass., and at its regional campuses across the country. Springfield College inspires students through the guiding principles of its Humanics philosophy - educating in spirit, mind, and body for leadership in service to others.

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