Local business owner Shawanna Kendrick, left, works with Urban Vision Initiative student consultant interns Ana Morris and Graham Davis during a Feb. 10 meeting in the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Photo by Angela Foster.
Providing aspiring entrepreneurs with the tools they need to succeed, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Urban Vision Initiative (UVI) gives students the chance to work with, help and learn from local entrepreneurs self-identified as low-income.
Launched in 2022 with help from the Jack and Charlotte Frost Family Foundation, UTC’s Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship began the initiative to support current and future business owners in Chattanooga. The program connects entrepreneurs from underserved communities with UTC student consultants to support their journey toward economic success.
As students receive an inside look at the ups and downs of running a business, UTC Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Director Mike Bradshaw said UVI students get a rare opportunity, which to him is the most rewarding part of the program.
“You have to get experience with entrepreneurs through this class,” Bradshaw said, “and they get to see things that most students never get to see—which is the really raw process of what it’s like to try and launch a business and get it stable.”
As a UTC Innovations in Honors student and junior majoring in management, Graham Davis’ dream is to run his own business. Being a part of UVI as a student consultant, he helps local business owners and gets an inside look at the risks and benefits of being an entrepreneur.
“I think it’s a really cool program to help connect business students to local businesses and give them a better understanding of how business works, especially start-up businesses from an experience-based perspective,” Davis said. “I think it has given me some good insight into starting a business, what to look out for and how to get connected and work with other businesses and build products.”
Ana Morris and Graham Davis work with UVI entrepreneurs Marie Mott (burgundy shirt) and Shawanna Kendrick.
In Davis’ time with UVI, the Knoxville, Tennessee, native has worked with two businesses. He said he’s learned how to take skills he already had and figured out how to use them in a way that could promote growth in himself and the businesses he supports.
Another student member of the 2024-25 UVI cohort, junior business administration: entrepreneurship major Ana Morris, has been able to help three local businesses. Although she, too, has noticed the financial challenges and competitive nature of entrepreneurship, she finds the need for more support to be a significant issue.
“All the entrepreneurs (we help) are minorities, most of them are women, most of them are black, and they mention things that I don’t think about,” said Morris, who is also an Innovations in Honors student and a Phillips Scholar. “The other day they were talking like, ‘It’s a whole other barrier to get past. We can say as much as we can about it, but people who aren’t minorities need to step up. That’s how things get changed.”’
Being an aspiring business owner herself, Morris finds the connections, experiences and information she learns at UVI to be valuable and inspiring. Despite its challenges, the Knoxville native recognizes showing up for the businesses and the UVI team to be the most important part of the process.
As Bradshaw said, “I’ve had some people burst into tears saying, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ which is kind of great because you get the opportunity to say, ‘Well, actually, I think you can because that level of care and concern that you have is what’s going to make the difference between being successful or not.”’
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UVI Student Consultant Internships
Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Director Mike Bradshaw, right, meets with UVI student consultant interns.
