371: Interviewing Students - Student Expo Winner

Summary On this episode of Startup Junkies, hosts Harrison Kitson, Claudia Mercado, and Annie Xu sit down with Jenna Kempkes, a senior biomedical engineering major at the University of Arkansas and the winner of Startup Junkie’s student expo during last November’s Global Entrepreneurship Week. As a patient care technician at UAMS and a student intern at the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Jenna is passionate about applying her biomedical engineering skills and knowledge to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare. Jenna has received the Gilman Scholarship, was awarded first place at the NWA Biodesign Sprint Program, has been included in published research in the GeroScience journal, co-founded and led the Pre-Med Hogs student organization, and completed several study abroad programs in Germany and Kenya. She is also an active member of the Army ROTC, the Honors College Executive Board, and various pre-health and medical humanities clubs. Throughout the episode, Jenna shares about the provisional patent on her Pavlik harness for hip dysplasia, her experience with Startup Junkie’s Student Expo, and her outlook on being a young entrepreneur.   Show Notes (0:46) Introducing Jenna Kempkes (2:50) About Jenna’s Harness (4:30) The Inspiration behind Jenna’s Journey (5:49) Jenna’s Research Process (10:11) Next Steps for Jenna (11:43) Jenna’s Experience with the Office of Entrepreneurship (13:41) How Jenna Stays Driven (17:36) The Impact of COVID (18:52) Jenna’s Experience at Startup Junkie’s Student Expo (22:48) Advice to Younger Self   Links Harrison Kitson Claudia Mercado Annie Xu Jenna Kempkes University of Arkansas   Quotes “I’ve only known this, I call it an organized chaos lifestyle, but it’s something I’ve realized I really love and is really important to me…and I keep finding more opportunities, and I’m really big on why say no? What’s the worst that will happen if you try?” - Jenna Kempkes, (14:34) “I hear the word entrepreneurship and I [think] I’m too young. I can’t do that. I still feel that way sometimes because it’s this scary world and you hear these people and everything they’ve given up for it…I didn’t realize that it could be something I explored safely at the University and that I didn't have to have some big idea…And now I’ve realized you don’t have to start a business to be an entrepreneur.” - Jenna Kempkes, (20:11) “Encourage an open mind. Having an open mind about everything around you is life changing...and so that closed mindset could have stopped me from a lot of things, but I’d want to encourage myself to take those opportunities. There’s nothing wrong with failing. A lot of people want to be perfect, they’re high achieving. It’s scary to fail, but it’s okay to fail. And I feel like I’ve learned more through my failures than I have through my successes.” - Jenna Kempkes, (23:12)