Muhlenberg athletes are spending the summer of 2023 enjoying fantastic experiences on campus, in their hometowns, across the country, and even around the world.

Rising junior men's basketball player Jayson Williams-Johnson, a finance major, improved his research and business skills by participating in the "Summer Seedbox" program at Muhlenberg.

Students in The Seedbox program identify a specific problem in the sustainable food systems space as well as a proposed initial solution. Students are mentored in product development, customer discovery and validation, the lean startup, developing a business model and funding and grant development. Ultimately, students have the opportunity to develop and test a prototype and business model. 

Throughout the first weeks of summer, I engaged in summer research in the area of food systems sustainability. I chose to pursue this research opportunity after completing a course during the spring semester called The Future of Food. This class provided me with a lot of knowledge and valuable content that I did not know previously in the area of food systems and sustainability. This class sparked my interest in this area and encouraged me to dive deeper into the studies by engaging in the "Summer Seedbox" research. 

Throughout this experience, my favorite part has just been getting out of my comfort zone and being able to learn more about topics I am not very familiar with. I've not only learned how to conduct efficient and proper research, but also to come up with unique ideas to develop an innovation and move it through the discovery and design process that we previously learned about in class. In addition to learning about the ins and outs of moving an innovation through this process, I also learned an abundance of information on pesticides, fertilizers and other aspects that go into sustainable agriculture. 

This experience has allowed me to improve my research and business skills. While engaging in research every day, it forced me to be strategic and specific in what I was searching and reading. This allowed me to not waste time researching pointless information that would not be beneficial to our venture. My business skills have also improved throughout this because there were many days when our group would have to go out and engage in customer discovery to see if our innovation would be profitable and something consumers would want to buy. In addition to this, we had the opportunity to actually design our product, and all of these skills will be useful when I look to start a business one day. 

Taking The Future of Food class at Muhlenberg with [Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program] Rita Chesterton and [Director of Sustainability Studies] Richard Niesenbaum provided me with the necessary background and knowledge to successfully participate in this research opportunity. Taking classes like these that aren't directly associated with my major allows me to diversify my interests and step out of my comfort zone! 

Doing something interesting or unusual this summer or know of a Muhlenberg student-athlete who is? Fill out this form to be included in our Summer Check-In series!