Wolffest was held at Butler Plaza from April 29-31. | James Schillinger/The Cougar
After two years of not hosting the event in a full in-person capacity, the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship brought back Wolffest.
The three-day event featuring food vendors, games and a display of entrepreneurship learnings for students in the Wolff program serves as the capstone project for juniors and seniors.
“Pretty much at the Wolff Center, what they help you do is grow personally, professionally and teach you to be an entrepreneur,” said entrepreneurship senior and CEO of the Space Cowboys Wolffest team Nicholas John.
Students in the Wolff program are divided into teams. Each student is taught how to make a profit, interact with businesses and implement leadership styles in order to generate revenue for their business.
“What we do at Wolffest is we figure out how to run consistently a real business to make a profit,” John said. “But not only that, how to build a good team and culture, a family, to make that succeed and actually how to fundraise and raise capital.”
The Wolff Center features a high-ranking, competitive program for students who are admitted to the class that year. For students who are fortunate enough to be admitted though, they said they find the experience valuable.
“The Wolff Center means a lot to me,” said entrepreneurship senior and communications director of the Wolff Luisana Rodriguez. “It has provided a lot of opportunities, especially entrepreneurial opportunities. We have learned throughout the semester how to become successful at running a business from operations to finances.”
For students who have been at the University for over a year, this is their first time attending Wolffest and their first opportunity to see what the Wolff Center’s students have to offer.
“It’s my first one, I think is really awesome,” said mechanical engineering sophomore Gabriel Echarre. “The idea of seeing so many students around and all these companies offering this is amazing. It’s also a great opportunity to show the students that there is diversity in this university.”
And for students who live on campus, Wolffest was a great way to see what food items Houston had to offer, without having to leave the UH campus.
“I think it’s pretty cool like It’s like in the middle of everything,” said communication and science disorders sophomore Tatum Boagni. “I could not go out of my way to like do all this stuff but like I live on campus so it’s an easy way to like bring off-campus events and things that you like, and you would have to lie spend money to go get gas and stuff. It’s perfect.”
