Our History

Clark Entrepreneur Club

Est. Winter 2016

In 2016, we started as a student club calling ourselves, The Clark Entrepreneur Club, for Clark College in Vancouver, WA. Our student founders and leaders were Kerry Blake, Tanya Chernichenko, and Marie Iancu. The club advisor was Nathan Webster.

The club was student-led and ran for two and a half years, accomplishing big things. Students traveled to other colleges while applying to competitions awhile growing their efforts to make Clark College a destination hub for entrepreneurial education, resources, and events.

Entrepreneur Day

Reach Your Academic ROI

On February 20, 2018, the Clark Entrepreneur Club brought the #1 motivational speaker, Dr. Eric Thomas, to Clark College to speak to the college. Despite the snow day of canceled classes, Reach Your Full Academic ROI continued as scheduled. We had a full morning of great business experts for speakers, presenters, and networking.

The Genesis of Pitch Fest

Est. Spring 2018

In 2018, Point B‘s Mike Pongon took the club to the University of Washington’s Business Plan Competition, which is now called the Dempsey Startup Challenge. We were honored to be guests. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the whole club.

The synergy created from Spring 2020 gave the club the momentum needed to earn program status from ASCC. Hence, Clark Entrepreneurs was born.

Inaugural Pitch Fest

2018 – 2019

Under the new leadership of Heather Leasure, the club officially launched Pitch Fest. The goal was to prepare students for the Dempsey Startup Competition at the University of Washington. Heather was instrumental in the behind-the-scenes, planning, and logistical details. She took the vision and made it a reality.