At most universities, the different schools (business, law, medical, graduate, undergraduate, etc.) don’t have a great deal of interaction.  One may teach the other, but rarely do they work together on projects.  But why?  Really, why?  The business accumen of a Kellogg MBA can compliment the medical expertise of a Feinberg student and the energy of an undergrad.

The NU Venture Competition, which I am at right now, is part of an attempt to break those barriers.  This competition is a new business idea competition – 3 minute pitches, 3 minutes of questions (more like grillings).  28 teams are presenting ideas – from social networks to medical devices.  What’s interesting about the competition, though, is the composition of the teams.  Because of mixers and socials held for the event in the winter and early spring, many of these teams have members from multiple schools.  Engineers meet MBAs who can help get their inventions mainstream or a law student joins a team to help with the patents.

I’m interested to see what other schools do to encourage this type of collaboration.  I’m betting that the more entrepreneurial a campus, the more likely this type of collaboration occurs.  And I believe this is ideal for the success of new ideas and for changing the world.

Disclaimer: Don’t sue me! Please?

Life is not complete if you do not have a mortal enemy. Having good friends, family, and some fun is nice and all, but life’s not very exciting if you’re not at war with someone.

So I have decided that I am at war with my new archrival, Ben Parr the UK model. If you look at my “about me” section, you’ll see that one of the reasons I made this site was to knock him off the top spot for the Google search of “Ben Parr.”

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From his site:

WELCOME to the official web site of actor, male model and martial arts world champion black belt –Ben Parr.

He set temperatures rising as Freddie, the fireman-dressed stripper, in top teenage TV soap Hollyoaks. The 6ft blue-eyed hunk has starred in other stage, screen and music productions. He’s the son of St Elmo’s Fire rock superstar John Parr

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Oh shi-, he has a Black Belt? 8 time world champion? Son of the St. Elmo’s Fire singer? Man, you sound really cool. Uh…my resolve remains the same! I shall knock him off the top spot in the Google search results and then I shall have an epic battle with him that cannot possibly end well.

Seriously, I am going to test out my promotion and SEO skills by using myself as the test subject. This should be an…educational experience. Sorry Ben the model, you’re going down.

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Let’s compare the two of us.

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I mean, damn, that side-by-side comparison speaks for itself. Our chiseled features, our hair, our roles as TV fireman strippers…it all makes perfect sense.

So to my new archrival…

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(Second disclaimer: I’m sure you rock Mr. Parr so again, don’t sue me!)

(P.S. – Ladies, don’t let the side-by-side fool you: I am the better looking hunk.)

If you don’t know, I used to serve as a Senator for Northwestern’s student government (called ASG).  After two years of it, I “retired” because of the bureaucracy and  unhealthy amount of politics within the organization.  I did what I could to reform the place, but it has nowhere near the flexibility or respect of, say, the Stanford student government.  However, I’ve been  campaigning nonstop for the man who will be able to fix it, Neal Sales-Griffin.  I’m sure I’ll write a longer dedication to my friend and fellow entrepreneur, but for now, Congrats Neal on a successful campaign!

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Now with my musing out of the way, a few things I’m doing in the next seven days.

• Preparing for the launch of the FriendQuilt Facebook application.  I promise I will write more on this project soon.
• Writing at least 25 pages of my novel.  I’ve recently overcome writer’s block and am on a mission to finish it two weeks from today.
• Chat with people in the blogosphere about Buck the Slump, my (future) blog on the recession.  I firmly believe it’s something we need, and I want to launch on May 1st, but I need to do two things first: feasibility analysis and find a partner with greater Wall street and market experience.

That’s the rundown, I’m sure I’ll have a more comprehensive update soon.  Remember, this site’s still a newborn and I haven’t worked out the bugs on it yet, but thanks for checking it out and giving me input.

- Ben