Amin Attends National Student Entrepreneur Program | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post, Crystal Baity, is a contributor to ECU News Services.

    East Carolina University's Mona Amin is one of 19 students from across the country selected for a prestigious student entrepreneur program.

    Amin, an Honors College student from Charlotte, is participating in the Women's Business Enterprise National Council Student Entrepreneurship Program held June 19-24 in Orlando.

    "I am most excited about meeting other young female entrepreneurs as well as meeting my mentors from Kroger and Ragozzino Foods," said Amin before leaving for the conference.

    Amin is part of a team developing an app called FreshSpire, a mobile application and text system that notifies consumers, including low-income shoppers, about discounts on near-expiring foods at local grocery stores, allowing them to take advantage of healthy foods at lower prices.

    Amin, a biology major set to graduate in 2017, plans to continue work on FreshSpire before attending the Brody School of Medicine as an Early Assurance Scholar.

    ECU and North Carolina A&T State University are the only colleges in North Carolina with a student at the conference. Sixteen colleges or universities are represented.

    The program aims to foster growth for the next generation of women-owned businesses through a tailored entrepreneur curriculum, a live pitch competition awarding $10,000 in seed capital and mentoring from successful Women's Business Enterprises and Fortune 500 companies.

    Students also participate in experiential learning through off-site visits to WBE and corporate campuses and accelerators. Since 2008, more than 150 students from 40 colleges and universities across the country have graduated from the program.

    Women-owned businesses are growing at one and a half times the U.S. national average and contribute more than $1.5 trillion dollars to the national economy and employ about 7.9 million people. An average of 887 new businesses opened every day in 2015, according to the WBENC.

    For more information, visit http://www.wbenc.org/student-entrepreneur-program/#program-details.