Started by sophomores Ethan Xu and Bradley Simmons, the Lafayette Think-Tank Club aims to give students a real taste at entrepreneurship. Simmons has a passion for entrepreneurship and hopes to inspire other students by creating this club.

“I went to a St. Louis University (SLU) pitch challenge, which was a great opportunity, and I think it’s nice that this club gives students an opportunity to create innovative solutions for real-world problems,” Simmons said.

Simmons and Xu attended the SLU pitch challenge known as the Pure Idea Generator, where participants are asked to provide answers to a different challenge each year. If their idea is picked as a finalist, they are invited to the St. Louis Zoo where they are given a new idea to solve while riding on the Zoo train. The theme this year is to combat global pollution.

The club proposed that the zoo create a device connecting to an app that would reward users for recycling. The points would then me redeemed for certain prices. They hoped to increase environmental awareness with this project.

“At the moment, nothing really has been done about the idea,” said Simmons. “We were hypothesizing, it was mainly an idea proposal. I can see the zoo taking up our idea in the near future. We also have thought about contacting the zoo to see if we make our idea into reality.”

Sophomore Arjun Suresh joined Lafayette Think-Tank because he liked the uniqueness of the club.

“I wanted to join clubs for college. I want to be a doctor, but business is also interesting to me, so I wasn’t pushed to join this club. The concept of this club is extremely unique, and it’s never been heard of before,” said Suresh.

On Oct. 28, Lafayette Think-Tank will be traveling to a SLU Teen Entrepreneurship event along with Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) at the Busch Student Center at SLU. There are speakers who will present to the students, the most famous being Khalia Collier, the founder of the St. Louis Surge, of the Global Women’s Basketball Association (GWBA).

“The club operates like a business. Our current project is making an app that makes time management easier for everybody. It’s a current issue, so it is relevant,” said Xu.

The club holds meetings during the third block of Flex in Room 87. They encourage everyone to come to one of their meetings and are specifically looking for programmers to join the club.