Taylor Harvey of the Illinois Institute of Technology strives to unite Chicago’s student and professional communities of entrepreneurs.

Taylor Harvey
Illinois Institute of Technology
Class of 2014
Major: Sociology

For me, entrepreneurship is not just about starting a business; it is a way of life. However, when I was going through elementary school and high school, I had no idea entrepreneurship existed, and I spent much of my time trying to figure out how to fit into the professional molds suggested to young minds. One cold weekend in Chicago opened my mind to a new world of possibilities; this weekend was the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization Conference.

Since then, I have co-founded chapters of CEO at Harold Washington College and The Illinois Institute of Technology in hopes that I can return the inspiration. I have taken students to the CEO Conference every year since 2010 in addition to organizing events and competitions on campus. Recently, I founded a chapter of Sigma Nu Tau, the first ever honor society dedicated to entrepreneurship on IIT’s campus with the goal of uniting Chicago’s student and professional community of entrepreneurs.

Unification of communities is something very near and dear to my heart and that principle is at the core of my latest venture. My mission is to provide a space for students to collaborate on solving real world problems and to develop their own innovative ideas into living, breathing entities.

As a first step, I am utilizing IIT Hackathon as a platform to encourage our tech savvy student base to drop the video game controllers and push themselves to create something awesome. IIT Hackathon is a 24-hour software development competition in which teams stay overnight in our idea shop and build working solutions to problems posed by sponsoring companies. IIT Hackathon started as a fun project between friends and is now growing into a fun business between friends since we acquired our first paying customer this past summer.

I consider myself a social entrepreneur and intend to leverage my ventures and experiences to educate and nourish my community for the duration of my life.

Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization: c-e-o.org
Sigma Nu Tau: sigmanutau.org
IIT Hackathon: facebook.com/IITHackathon

Share your story »

comments powered by Disqus2508 page views