‘Pursuing ideas I’m passionate about’: Allison Hubbell, pitch-off competitor

Flexing your entrepreneurship/innovation muscles

It wasn’t until my senior year that I really got involved in the entrepreneurship program at Iowa State. My first event was the ISU Innovation Prize. I loved my experience and even won first place in our category. From there, I immediately signed up for the Fall Startup Pitch Competition and the Food Insecurity Prize. This semester I participated in the College-by-College Pitch Off as well.

Value of Iowa State’s innovation/entrepreneurial resources

Iowa State’s entrepreneurial resources are incredibly beneficial no matter if you know you want to pursue an idea, if you are just curious about it, or if you want to build your professional skills. Every event I’ve participated in has helped me grow and gain confidence. I’m significantly more comfortable with public speaking. I’ve practiced critical thinking and problem solving with real industry challenges. I’ve collaborated with people from all different backgrounds and communication styles to be successful on these projects. And throughout the process, I was eager to be involved because we were pursuing ideas I’m genuinely passionate about. The Iowa State University entrepreneurship program is where your classroom education turns into real-life implementation.

Taking this mindset into your career

I’ve learned to think critically and question why things are what they are. That has helped me add value to my team by identifying process improvement opportunities. The creativity I’ve practiced with new ideas will help me brainstorm effective ways to solve these problems. My willingness to network and make connections will help me collaborate successfully with any team. Knowing I have the skill set and the mindset to take on real-world challenges is what makes me confident going into my full-time role.

How do you hope to change the world?

Entrepreneurship is all about seeing problems or challenges in our communities and helping to solve them. I want to be the type of person who not only sees those opportunities but is willing to act on them. Iowa State has given me a set of skills to be able to do just that. I hope to change the world by saying yes to opportunities, to people, to challenges — and taking action to solve the problems that really matter, whenever and wherever they arise.

The moment you saw yourself as an innovator/entrepreneur

Before my first ISU entrepreneurship event, I would have said entrepreneurship wasn’t for me. My personal strengths didn’t match up with my perception of who an entrepreneur was. However, after succeeding in that event and delving more into the program, I realized my misunderstanding. Entrepreneurship is not exclusive to a few geniuses with magical skill sets. It’s something that can be learned, something you’ve probably already halfway learned here at Iowa State. I began to think of myself as an entrepreneur when I reframed my view of what entrepreneurship was and realized that the skills I’ve been learning — critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, communication — could be harnessed to solve problems I cared about. That I could be the one to help solve all those problems, if only I was willing to give it a try.