Spring 2013 Peer Advisors & Interns

Ashley Mo

Social Media Intern

Ashley is a senior from Troy, MI, majoring in Economics and Psychology. She is also in the Program in Entrepreneurship and enjoys listening to guest speakers and innovators discuss their ideas. Ashley's current post-graduation plans are to gain experience in Marketing before hopefully one day applying her skills at a startup. As the Social Media Intern, Ashley works to increase awareness of the Center for Entrepreneurship on campus and increase student engagement. Her other interests include ballroom dancing, euchre, and racquetball.

Jeremy Klaben

Peer Advisor

Jeremy is a Senior in the Ross School of Business.  He grew up in Dayton, Ohio in a very entrepreneurial family involved with a camera/film business and a furniture business. He's currently working on starting his own fast casual restaurant for after he graduates. He is also a member of TEDxUofM and Beat OSU.  He loves to talk to entrepreneurs and is focusing his time on spreading the entrepreneurial spirit to more and more students across the University. His expertise relating to the Center for Entrepreneurship include: designing simple and cheap testing methods to validate concepts, graphic design, and helping early stage ideas determine what their next steps are.

Pauline Knighton

Peer Advisor

Pauline is a Senior in the college of LSA studying General Studies and earning her certificate in the Program in Entrepreneurship through the CFE. She grew up in Farmington Hills, MI and is very passionate about strengthening the state of Michigan through entrepreneurship and innovation. She has participated in two student startups at UofM and during her time at each venture she learned valuable lessons in customer discovery, business models, and team work/team development. As a Peer Advisor, she enjoys sharing her venture mistakes and successes, helps students network to spread the word on their idea and needs and provides students with community resources and "next step" plans. In addition to networking with entrepreneurs and learning about the startup process, her passions include horseback riding, ceramics/art, trying new recipes, and jumping on any new opportunity that comes her way!

Han Zhang

Peer Advisor

Han was born in China, but graduated high school from Ann Arbor. He's currently a senior with a dual degree between Business and Math, also pursuing the Certificate in Entrepreneurship. On campus, he's involved with MPowered Entrepreneurship, Michigan Hackers, and Delta Sigma Pi. He is a tech enthusiast that loves to help students explore the field of entrepreneurship and brainstorm new ideas for impact. At the CFE, he will focus on development work for the College of Engineering, and to get more alums to engage with students.

Alex Perlman

Peer Advisor

Alex is a senior in LSA studying Global Enterprise and Sustainable Development in tandem with a Certificate in the Program in Entrepreneurship.  He is a product of Ann Arbor and in high school was heavily involved in the non-profit community.  In college, his focus has been on entrepreneurship and start-ups.  He is a big proponent of failure and risk-taking and enjoys disruptive social innovation.  Recently, he has become interested in the intersection of academic entrepreneurship and microfinance, as well as, cleantech entrepreneurship.  Since Dec. 2011, Alex has been a co-founder at The Beet Box, a restaurant that healthfully empowers customers.  With The Beet Box, he has participated in TechArb and fundraised over $25,000 via Kickstarter and grants from the University of Michigan.  He is excited to see where Entrepreneurship 4.0 will take us.

Ara Markarian

Peer Advisor

Ara Markarian is a junior pursuing a dual degree at the University of Michigan, majoring in Industrial and Operations Engineering and Informatics. He grew up in Livonia, MI and is very interested in the revitalization of Detroit through entrepreneurial organizations.  Working in the CFE he furthered his understanding of being "impact driven" and having an "entrepreneurial mindset", and he likes to use these skills in the betterment of his extracurricular.   His other on-campus involvements include Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity, Nexecon Consulting Group, and the Armenian Youth Federation.  As a peer advisor, he enjoys discussing the numerous creative ideas that are constantly coming into the Center for Entrepreneurship.

Matt Rosner

Graphic Design Intern

Matt is a creator, of emotion, of experience, of the functional, tangible, and intangible; He is an observer, of social interaction, of life, of patterns; he is a source of ideas about invention, innovation, and the realization of one’s true potential. He is an enthusiast of folk music, contemporary art, great food, and things that look good and work well. But more importantly he is growing, and learning, and making mistakes, two steps forward, one step back, and enjoying every moment of it.

He is a Sophomore in the School of Art & Design and taking classes in the Program in Entrepreneurship.  He is from Commerce Township, Michigan and has a strong passion for the City of Detroit!  He is a member of TEDxUofM and Crowd313 on campus, and in his free time,  he enjoys cooking and mountain biking.

Alex Lee

Tech Arb Intern

Although only a sophomore at Ross, Alex has had a pretty full-throttle year so far at the UM. From Shelby Township (1.5 hrs~ away), he moved around a lot: A lot of the Midwest, Korea, and even China. He got into entrepreneurship in a rather serendipitous manner, when he cofounded CampusMemes with the CEO of a company for which he interned, totally out of the blue. Feverishly working 140 hours a week for almost two months, he got swept into the vibrant culture of tech startups and is loving it to this day. To clarify though, he cannot code. His expertise lies in marketing, brand architecture, and communication. He has worked on startups, advised startups, managed a viral trend, and is working as the Peer Advisor for TechArb, as well as a member of TechStars Boston Fall 2012. His main goal is to help ventures at TechArb become something impactful.

Haley Vingsness

Web Team Intern

Haley is an MS candidate in Human-Computer Interaction. She is currently developing her portfolio to become a user interface designer. She wants to be a driving force in the technical rebuilding of Detroit's economy. At Michigan, she is a member of the Michigan fencing team. Before graduate school, she did web development for both startups and Fortune 500 companies. She has a BS from Michigan Technological University.

Harrison Forman

Peer Advisor

Harrison is a junior from Voorhees, New Jersey, pursuing a degree in Sport Management and the Program in Entrepreneurship.  Harrison's entrepreneurial journey emerged during sophomore year, when he co-founded StudentKit, a mobile application to improve communication on college campuses.  His team traveled to San Francisco for the amazing "Bay Area Entrepreneurship Experience" through the CFE, where they were awarded Second Place and made lifelong connections.  Harrison envisions a campus with greater interdisciplinary communication amongst students of all backgrounds.  Harrison hopes to create a company someday that will disrupt the sports industry through a greater emphases on innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.  Besides networking with fellow student entrepreneurs and emerging business leaders, Harrison enjoys watching European soccer (Go Spurs!), reading, cooking, and traveling the world!

 Sarah Oleinick

Peer Advisor

osarah at umich dot edu

Sarah is a Junior studying English in the college of LSA.  She is also completing the Certificate for the Program in Entrepreneurship.  Sarah grew up in Huntington Woods, MI and discovered the world of entrepreneurship after pitching in the 1000 Pitches Competition Sophomore year.   On campus, Sarah is a member of MPowered Entrepreneurship.  She enjoys writing and is interested in communication and its importance for entrepreneurs.  Sarah’s other interests include blogging, reading, horseback riding, and is always excited to hear new ideas or dive into a brainstorming session!

Dan Hoffmann

Peer Advisor

danevanh at umich dot edu

Dan is a Junior in LSA's Political Science department and is enrolled in the CFE's Program in Entrepreneurship. He hails from New Rochelle, NY. From a young age, Dan understood the importance of the entrepreneurial spirit. By the time he entered middle school, he had designed floor plans and a marketing campaign for a new hotel chain but was unfortunately unable to raise adequate seed capital. More recently, he co-founded an opportunity discovery platform called Notifly and spent a semester working for No Labels, a political startup that encourages problem-solving and cooperation in Washington. Dan is passionate about inspiring Michigan students to develop their ideas and pursue potential ventures.