Making Gains

Our Scholars invest in their futures at the Wake Forest School of Business

It was a gorgeous spring day this past Saturday, March 21, 2026, as both cohorts of our 2025-2026 LAUNCH Scholars arrived at Farrell Hall, the home of the Wake Forest School of Business.

We began our day by breaking up into groups for a classic team-building icebreaker to learn the value of rapid prototyping, collaboration, and identifying hidden assumptions in project management. Groups competed to build the tallest freestanding structure using uncooked spaghetti, marshmallows, and a limited amount of tape and string.

Diving into the main content for the day, Scholars heard an overview of what “business” really entails, presented by Cheryl Rotyliano, the Senior Associate Director of Market Readiness & Employment at Wake Forest. We learned from Whitney Millhouse from Undergraduate Integrative Student Services all about the application process to join the B-school here at Wake, which interested undergraduate students complete during their freshman year.

After a break for a professional headshot session for our Scholars, Nina Millender, a current grad student at the School of Business, walked us through the details and importance of creating a LinkedIn account. We hope to see our Scholars’ accounts – with their amazing new headshots – up soon!

For the remainder of the event, our Scholars worked again in small groups to plan and present a business idea based on a randomly assigned dollar store item. The goal was to rebrand, repurpose, and pitch their item, and to see that success isn’t always about having the most expensive resources—it’s about perspective. Each group was assisted by a Wake grad student volunteer and every Scholar participated in giving their group’s pitch to a panel of experts. We loved seeing our future entrepreneurs shine!

Check out the photos from our day below.