University of West Alabama

Elsa Joly | Senior, Tennis | Scholarship
Aubagne, France / Lycée Lacordaire
Senior Elsa Joly along with junior Anneke van Oosterom earned Fleur-de-lis Awards for their recent participation in the Innovation Scholars Program. The two were nominated by St. Catherine faculty mentors with a group of other students from Minnesota Private Colleges Council to help either the Mayo Clinic or a Minnesota-based medical science start-up companies to develop new products that may be marketable. The two were given once in a life time opportunity to earn real-world experience in working with a start-up biotech company while applying the skills that they have acquired as student-athletes at St. Catherine. The majority of their work consisted of extensive market research for Neurotype, Inc. The product they conducted the research on is still in pre-clinical trial phases, and it is critical for them to have information for a commercialization plan so that they can receive funding for clinical trials. Highlights of our research included identifying key market segments, an ideal customer, and partners for the company to work with to reach the ideal customer and market. Along with this, we made a promotional calendar and projected 5-year financials given our recommendations. In all, this work totaled approximately 100 hours for each student involved, meeting from mid-October to mid-February.