Last week at Bloomsburg University, an event in Sutliff Hall called The Husky Dog Pound, a Husky-inspired version of the popular entrepreneur series Shark Tank raised a sense of competition and high stakes. Sutliff is one of the University’s most extensive buildings with the entirety of the space being dedicated to the College of Business since the 1980’s. 

Background History on BU’s ZCOB:

On February 24th 1930, under the administration of Francis Haas (1927 to 1937), approval was given to establish the commercial Business Education department. 

One of the first breakthrough events held by the Business Education program was the University’s fashion show which started in 1947. 

Since then, the Zeigler College of Business has added a series of events which help promote BU’s programs and give back to students and the community. 

The Main Event

The annual “Husky Dog Pound,” which has thrived for six years now, was definitely an intensive process. Many classes were canceled in order to accommodate the hundreds of students competing. It was well worth the huge success and media exposure.

Preparation for the University participants started in the fall semester with “Husky Den” preparation meetings.  University participants were also required to submit two videos in order to advance to the competition. The university presentations ran about 30 minutes. All entries competed in the preliminary round in the morning and the best five moved on to the final round of competition in the afternoon.

The middle/high school students had a bit more help. They prepared their business proposals with their teachers at school and had three minutes for their pitch and 5 minutes for Q & A with the judges.

High school and BU college students competed for some hefty scholarships with original inventions and ideas. According to Christina Force, Bloomsburg’s Associate Professor and Business Education Program Coordinator, the event was a hit with 48 school districts for a total of 129 teams.

“There were over 480 attendees,” she stated in an interview. Dr. Force shared, “The stronger proposals were definitely from the college students.  They have more business knowledge and more time to present their ideas.”

In first place was Ethan Sickler of BU, who won $3500 for his “Artificer” invention. 

Dr. Force admitted the event’s progression of success has only grown stronger throughout the years. She also slipped in that a main challenge is fitting everyone’s proposals into the event, since it is only a few hours. “The middle and high school competition is a challenge because they all need to present in the morning and we have to have the results by 1:30 for the awards,” said Force.

The Husky Dog Pound is a great opportunity for students in middle and high school to get an idea of what the business major is all about. It also gives college students an opportunity to showcase their skills and demonstrate what they’ve learned about innovation and business proposals.

If you would like more information about the competition or how to enter, email Dr. Christina Force at [email protected].