Miscellaneous
MU senior Daniel Serres and junior Vanessa Ramírez walked into a room with 15 other student entrepreneurs. Each team had their own business idea and vied for the opportunity to win up to $30,000 in start-up funds after pitching their idea to a panel of judges. The 15 businesses had been chosen from a pool of 50 applicants. “Every room we walk in, we’re constantly thinking like, how we can collaborate with people,” Ramírez said. “So we see competition, but at the same time, we also see potential relationships.” Serres and Ramírez have known each other since middle school. Both are from Kansas City and both are full-time political science majors. But their similarities don’t stop there. Serres and Ramírez both identify within the Latinx community. “That’s why wer’re co-founders because we’re very much so on the same page about the messaging that we want to bring,” Serres said. The two Kansas City natives developed a business “Fresher Than U,” which takes local artists’ work and puts it