Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Students develop new businesses BY ANNA MONTANUCCI THE GAMECOCK Seven USC students have been selected to develop six new busi nesses at the USC Business Incubator Center. Each student will receive $1,000, free legal ad vice and two years of office space in order to help his business flour ish. The seven students include Shea Airey, a second-year inter national business student and Paul Cain, a second-year business student, who together are devel oping a company called Canary Beautification and Property Restoration. Their business uses pressure washing and steam cleaning equipment to restore old, neglected buildings and land marks. Steven Ferguson, a recent grad uate from the USC School of Music, is starting Music Manipulator, a business that of fers music transcription software. Another hopeful business woman, third-year accounting stu dent Jewitte Leggett, is starting Healthy Rays, which specializes in airbrush tanning. Leggett says Healthy Rays is “a safe way to 1__4-r.v* »» liU VC. U yvi l.v/'/v USCExchange is the creation of Leon Middleton, a second-year business student working toward degrees in business administra tion * and real estate. USCExchange is a free Web site that allows students to sell per sonal items online. Jase Ramsey is a first-year doc toral student in management. He has bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and business administration from the University of Kansas. His new business, Guaranteed Score Test Prep, offers standardized test preparation services to students who hope to attend college. Second-year business student Chris Zimmer is starting up Zim’s Waterice, a concession stand that sells waterice and other refresh ments. The six businesses underwent a long application process. The Student Incubator Advisory Committee, a panel of students of varying disciplines and age groups, advertised the business incubation opportunity fall 2003. Twenty-two student groups re sponded and submitted their business ideas to the SIAC. The panel carefully evaluated the business plans and then selected eight finalists. Joel Stevenson, director of the Student Business Incubator pro gram, received the eight ideas and in turn passed them on to the regular Incubator Advisory Committee. The IAC interviewed the eight finalists and selected the best six for sponsorship. The Business Incubator Center began in June 2001 and has already benefited many USC students and the Columbia area. New companies sponsored by the program have created 250 jobs with nearly $10 million invested in their development. All the business owners are full-time graduates or undergraduates from USC. Midlands Technical College be came a partner in the business in cubation plan in 2003 and will add two student businesses of its own imo spi mg. Other financial partners in the SIAC are the City of Columbia, Richland County, Lexington County, McNair Law Firm, Tomlin and Company, Nexsen Pruett Law Firm, the USC Darla Moore School of Business, USC College of Engineering and the USC Arnold School of Public Health. The business students also re ceive support in the form of advice from Stevenson and Richard Robinson, who has been with the business program for 25 years. Stevenson remarked that the qual ities he likes to see most in the prospective businesspeople are de termination, willingness to work hard and “the passion to take it forward.” Comments on this story?E mail gamecockneius@gwm.sc.edu Fire CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 she was shopping to replace es sential items. “I walked into Target and almost started cry ing, because I didn’t know where to start.” Despite the cold, hundreds of students gathered in nearby Bowman Field to watch the fire. “The entire field was cov ered with people,” Julia DesChamps, a third-year mar keting student, said. “Everyone just sat there and watched it burn to the ground.” Third-year biology student Tom Thompson watched the fire from the field. He said flames reached about 40 feet in the air. On Thursday, Thompson went to Dollar General and bought school supplies to con tribute to relief efforts set up by campus organizations. Clemson s student govern ment and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes organized a clothing and toiletry drive for homeless students. “We’ve had an overwhelm ing response,” said Ashley Higginbotham, undergraduate student government chief of staff. She said about 150 volun teers worked all day Thursday at the Alumni Center and Clemson House to arrange and distribute collected items. She estimated about 150 students from University Ridge took ad vantage of free clothes and toi letries. Local business like Papa John’s, Hooters and Chick-fil A donated food. Several homeless students were forced to spend Wednesday night in either the Alumni Center or at a local Comfort Inn, where accommo dations were made. For her part, Manning has already found a new apartment down the road from University Ridge.She said the fire revealed a lot about the community. “There’s no better place to have your house bum down,” she said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu U.S. lifts travel ban on Libya BY TERENCE HUNT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - The United States lifted a long-standing ban on travel to Libya on Thursday and invited American companies to begin planning their return, after Moammar Gadhafi’s gov ernment affirmed it was respon sible for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988. The administration also en couraged Libya to establish an official presence in Washington by opening an “interests sec tion,” a diplomatic office a level beneath an embassy. In addition, the United States will expand its diplomatic presence in Tripoli. The White House announce ment rescinded travel restric tions that have been in place for 23 years against Libya, a country the United States had long brand ed a sponsor of state terrorism. Allowing U.S. travel to Libya would give American corpora tions an opportunity to do lucra tive business legally in Libya’s rich oil fields. It also would help Gadhafi emerge from semi-isola tion. U.S. firms that had holdings in Libya before sanctions were im posed were authorized to negoti ate the terms of renewing their operations, the White House said. However, the companies will be required to obtain U.S. approval of any agreement, if economic sanctions remain in place. The Treasury Department %aid the prohibition on flights to Libya by U.S. carriers remained in place for the time being, even though the travel ban was lifted. The United States has been moving toward improved rela tions with Tripoli since Gadhafi renounced the development of weapons of mass destruction and allowed weapons inspectors to verify that his country was aban doning nuclear, chemical and bi ological programs. “While more remains to be done, Libya’s actions have been serious, credible and consistent whh Col. Gadhafi’s public decla ration that Libya seeks to play a role in ‘building a new world free from (weapons of mass destruc tion) and from all forms of ter rorism’,” a White House state ment said. The administration has decid ed to send a U.S. diplomat to Tripoli after a quarter-century of icy distance. The Americans, working out of a so-called "inter est section,” will explore renew ing formal ties with Libya as well as Helping U.S. travelers. There are nQW 10 to 15 U.S. and British experts in the country to oversee the dismantling of Libya's nuclear weapons program. The U.S. effort to ease some sanctions with Libya is meant partly to reward Gadhafi. It also is aimed at encouraging other countries with serious weapons programs to give them up. WEDNESDAYS DURING LENT March 3,10,17,24,31; April 7 8:00 p.m . (incense will be used) Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Sumter Street at Gervais (across from the State House) For more information, call 771-7300, or visit www.trinitysc.org