Our Team

Dingman Scholars

Dingman Liaisons

Past Dingman Scholars

About the Dingman Scholars Program

Dingman Scholars are full-time MBA students who receive financial scholarships and support from the Dingman Center during the launch of their business ideas. Scholars benefit from the expert guidance offered by the Dingman Center's Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, professional staff and Smith School faculty. 

Dingman Scholars receive a $500 monthly stipend, tuition remission, a Graduate Assistantship position with health benefits, and up to $6,000 in additional scholarships all while receiving free mentoring, advising, operational support and possible equity to operate their very own business. All Dingman Scholars must start up and execute their own unique business idea, in addition to working with the Dingman staff and representing the Center at Dingman Events in and around campus. The scholarship is renewable on a semester basis. If you are interested in becoming a Dingman Scholar please contact Managing Director, Asher Epstein.

Student Scholars are chosen based on their level of commitment and drive to start their own business. Students chosen to incubate their start-up at the Dingman Center are also eligible to receive funding from the Smith E-Fund, which is a $175,000 evergreen fund.

Dingman LiaisonS

CAN Liaison – Receive $1,000 per semester to identify and evaluate companies for the CAN Program. Other responsibilities include working with Entrepreneurs-in-Residence to provide feedback to participating companies, coordinating investors, and nurturing CAN Companies into Portfolio Companies.

Portfolio Liaison – Receive $1,000 per semester to work one-on-one with a Portfolio Company. Students will work as an intern and support the start-up company to gain hands on experience working in an entrepreneurial venture.

Mentor Liaison – Receive $1,000 per semester to work with entrepreneurial companies, addressing issues—whether financial, marketing, operational, organizational or strategic—and developing the necessary steps to find solutions.

Lastly, students can work on individual Dingman Center projects as needed throughout the semester. Projects including working on real time business challenges for start ups and non-profits through consultancy projects and the Grassroots.org Social Venture program.

top ▲

Omarr Tobias (2nd year MBA student)
Omarr has served as a Naval Civil Engineer Corps Officer for over 6 years. He has served as an Officer in Charge of a 53 member construction team as a member of a Naval Mobile Construction Battalion. He deployed to various regions of the world constructing airfields, camps and other facilities during hit tour in the battalion. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Georgia. In November 2003, he started a full service Facility Management Company, Clean City, LLC, specializing in graffiti removal and prevention based in Washington D.C. Omarr was a 1998 graduate of North Carolina Agricultural And Technical State University. In his spare time, he likes to listen to and create music, dabble in real estate, read, and play basketball, football or just about any other sport.

top ▲

Cherry Kwunyeun (1st year PTMBA student)

Parichad Kwunyeun, also known as Cherry. Cherry received her B.S. in Information Technology and B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Maryland, College Park. As an undergraduate she was president of the Thai Students Association and completed the following programs: University Honors, Smith Departmental Honors, and QUEST. After graduating from UMCP, Cherry worked as a consultant for Deloitte Consulting based out of the World Financial Center in New York. In her spare time, she volunteered at the Smithsonian and Asia Society. After 9/11, Cherry transitioned careers into the high-end textile industry and applied her industry knowledge to consult on micro-financed handicraft projects in Thailand while a Fulbright Scholar. This experience laid the foundation for her accessories company: Blumpari. The name comes from Cherry’s Thai given name Parichad which means the “eternal flower that blooms in heaven.”

top ▲

Tom Hessen (1st year MBA student)

Tom spent the last five years working at Accenture in their Media and Entertainment practice, working primarily with TV broadcasting clients. He also started and ran a web company focusing on real estate in the Washington D.C metro area. Tom received his BS from James Madison University's Integrated Science and Technology program. While at JMU, he developed his passion for technology start-ups and plans to continue to work in the start-up/venture capital space after school. Tom also enjoys reading, playing basketball, and playing an occasional video game.

top ▲

Ike Kim (1st year MBA student)

Ike Kim has served as the program manager at a literary non-profit, worked as an Instructor and the Academic Supervisor at an English-as-a-Second Language program in Seoul, South Korea, published a book of poetry, earned seven Microsoft software certifications, and broken a patio brick with a bare hand. Before attending Smith, Ike was the Director of Technology Services in the Office of Information Technology at The Graduate School, CUNY, in New York, NY. He, however, learned much of what he knows about business, entrepreneurship, and marketing, while working criminally long hours at his family's 7-Eleven Food Store in Stony Brook, NY. Ike is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and holds a Master's in English with a focus on 20th century American poetry and poetics from the University at Buffalo, SUNY. He is actively involved in the Smith community as a Track Representative for his class and as a Board Member on both the Graduate Marketing Association and the Entrepreneurship Club. Ike is a Dean’s Fellow concentrating in Marketing and Strategy and lives in College Park with his wonderful wife and daughter, and two annoying cats.

top ▲

Bryan Leslie (1st year MBA student)

Bryan Leslie is an assistant vice president with Branch Banking & Trust. He joined BB&T in January 2003 and has worked as an analyst in the corporate banking group and currently is a commercial banker at BB&T's K Street office in downtown Washington, DC. He graduated with honors from Virginia Commonwealth University (summa cum laude), earning a B.S. in Finance in May 2003. While attending VCU, Bryan was a member of the local Phi Beta Kappa chapter and was an active member in the VCU chapter of the Financial Management Association. Prior to attending VCU, Bryan was a naval nuclear reactor plant operator onboard the D. D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) from 1993 to 1998. Bryan is a first-year part-time MBA student at the DC campus. Bryan currently lives in Indian Head, MD.

top ▲

Lilah Pomerance (1st year MBA student)

Lilah Pomerance was a senior consultant for the Central American Women's Fund on organizational development and strategic development issues in Managua, Nicaragua last year. Before Nicaragua, Lilah ran a national campaign to get young voters to the polls during the 2004 presidential election and ran New Mexico and Ohio for John Edwards for President. Lilah also worked for US Senator Charles Schumer and managed conflict resolution programs for an Israeli-Palestinian non-profit. She graduated from Barnard College in New York City, enjoys running, and spending time with her husband Dan. At Dingman, she is the student coordinator for the Social Venture program and is a Capital Access Network liaison.

top ▲

Jaimin Shah (1st year MBA student)

Jaimin B. Shah is a MBA/JD candidate who enjoys working on the fine line between business and law. He completed his undergraduate degree at Carnegie Mellon University, graduating with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, and subsequently gained industry experience through Air Products and Chemicals’ engineering rotational program. Jaimin’s most recent role in industry got him involved with technology valuation, licensing, and transaction. Upon graduation from the joint-degree program, Jaimin hopes to work at the junction of business, law, and technology in industries such as Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Intellectual Asset Management. In his spare time, he likes to read, watch sports and movies, play basketball, create business ideas, question the workings of the universe, or bike and hike with his wife.

top ▲