'Challenge' celebrates banner decade

The March 12 presentation of The Fallon Challenge assembled another impressive line up of student-visionaries who pitched their most innovative entrepreneurial proposals to a panel of business leaders.

The competition honors the Fallon family patriarch, Rodney J. Fallon, who died of cancer in 2011 at age 59. With the support of faculty from the Department of Business Management and the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship, the program celebrated its tenth year.

“Each year the program continues to grow,” said Meredythe Fallon del Gallo (’12), elder daughter of Rodney J. Fallon and a member of the CoB’s Board of Advisors.

The competition’s success is abundantly evident, Meredythe said, “in the record number of applications  received and the level of engagement displayed by professors, business leaders, alumni, on-campus organizations and entrepreneurs.”

One student-entrepreneur is selected by a panel of judges as having developed the best values-based business idea and is awarded a $2,000 scholarship. 

Facing off against six competing concepts, the winner of this year’s grand prize was capSOUL, a clothing subscription service that curates capsule wardrobes for children, in tandem with a donation program to support children in foster care. It was conceived and created by Molly Johnson, a first-year student in JMU’s School of Media Arts and Design who also employs her talents as a graphic design assistant in the university’s Office of Admissions. She is the daughter of two JMU graduates from the mid-’90s.

“It still feels unreal to me,” said Johnson afterward. “I feel like I’m in a fever dream right now — I’m so ecstatic and so happy.”

Evaluating this year’s submissions were Chris Davidson (’01) of Orca Strategies, Ryan Kim of Accenture Federal Services and Julia Weaver (’21) of Julia Weaver Photography.

“Even if you’re not announced as one of the ‘winners’ this evening, just by being here you literally have won,” Davidson told the nearly 200 competition participants and supporters packed into Hartman Hall’s Forum. “I talk to people all the time who have shown up for pitch competitions like this one, did not win, and still went on to massive success.”

The scholarship recognizes the “entrepreneurial spirit, passion, drive and up-for-a-challenge mentality of a deserving James Madison University student,” Meredythe said. She described the young entrepreneurs who took part in this year's competition as “go-getters personally, academically and professionally.”

The spirited but friendly competition is open to all majors and class-years at JMU. In addition to the cash award, the scholarship includes exclusive mentoring from entrepreneurs, business leaders, industry professionals and alumni. The audience was encouraged to supply some input of its own by selecting the winner of the $500 Audience Choice Award sponsored by the GCFE. It went to Caroline Stoaks of Pain to Purpose, a faith-based blog.

For Meredythe, her brother Austin (’15), sister Abigail (’16) and mother Edythe, the competition is a way to help gifted JMU students transform their ideas into actual products and services. The Fallon siblings are themselves graduates of JMU's College of Business.

“A similarity between this year’s competitors and those of past years is that they’re all really driven and passionate people,” noted Abigail. “They all work very hard.”

The Fallons credit the support of Sarah Dodson, Carol Hamilton and Fariss Mousa of the CoB’s Business Management faculty, and Suzanne Bergmeister, Jodi Fox and Leigh Anne Losh of the GCFE, with having made it possible for them to award more than $17,000 in scholarships to deserving JMU students over the course of The Fallon Challenge’s decade-long history.

“It’s always such a thrill to see young entrepreneurs chasing their dreams,” said Austin.