WFU history major wins regional entrepreneur award

Matt Hinson, a senior history major at Wake Forest University, recently won first place in the Central Atlantic region for the 2003 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards.

The awards were announced this week from Clemson University’s Spiro Center for Entrepreneurship. Student entrepreneurs from colleges and universities in Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C., competed for the award. As a regional winner, Hinson will compete for the national award in November.

Hinson won for a staffing service he formed in the fall of 2001 called Wake Works (www.wakeworks.com). The company has a pool of about 140 employees, all Wake Forest students, who serve as waitresses, bartenders, valet parkers and consultants for hotels and conference centers. He officially incorporated the business this spring as Wake Works Staffing Inc. The company is also pursuing franchises with other college campuses.

Hinson is the second Wake Forest student to win this award in the past three years. Ricky Van Veen, a business major who graduated May 19, won in 2001 for a profitable Web site he created, collegehumor.com.

Hinson was nominated by George Aldhizer, associate professor of accountancy in the Calloway School of Business and Accountancy.

Categories: Recognition, Student