By Brian Pharies
A graduate of Albright College, Miami University of Ohio, and the University of Pennsylvania, Munick received his Master’s in Economics and a Ph.D. in Demography.
He used his degree in Demography at the Census Bureau and the Penn State University Data Center where he researched and reported on issues of public policy.
In 1993, Munick took part in an entrepreneurship program as part of the Rebuild LA Program, which encouraged gang-involved youth to learn business skills. Munick helped create a truce between the two most notorious rival gangs, the Crips and the Bloods. Members of the two gangs agreed to design athletic shoes for singer Kendrick Lamar and today continue working on shoe design for Reebok.
Munick moved to Buena Vista, Colorado in 2006, spearheading the Collegiate Peaks Forum Series while teaching at Colorado Mountain College, a non-profit lecture series geared toward intellectual inquiry.
Shortly after Munick came to PPCC, he became a key instructor for the Ice House Entrepreneurs’ Program. Ice House, according to the PPCC website, was “designed to inspire and engage entrepreneurial thinking in classrooms and communities around the world,” and was the first community college business program of its kind in the nation. (See more here)
Munick’s involvement with Ice House has led to his well-attended Discussion Series, which introduces local entrepreneurs to PPCC students, faculty and staff. From this series, the Entrepreneurs Club was cultivated.
“Finally, there was a club at PPCC to help students realize their dreams of owning a business” said Munick, who has served as the advisor for the club since its inception in 2012.
Munick also teaches Entrepreneurship 105, which educates students on the varying principals needed to create success after leaving PPCC. Past student ideas include the long-operating coffee cart at Centennial Campus, the Campus Art Brokers, which showcased student art in a buyer’s atmosphere, and Campus Incubator, a room which allows entrepreneurial students their own space to solve business problems and consider new on-campus ventures.
Overall, “The club creates opportunities for students to harness the power of a college network, and to gain valuable know-how to start a business,” said Munick in a recent meeting.
In the Spring of 2017, Munick and his fellow professors developed the successful How to Series, allowing outside entrepreneurs to show students what they need in order to build a successful business.
One idea Munick and the club hope to work on this year is to broker homes for homeless college students through a matching service which would connect homeless students with faculty, staff and students from PPCC who have extra rooms available to house them.
Other projects for this semester include developing the Entrepreneurs’ Network, working on a possible Student Emergency Relief Fund, and working with the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative.
The Entrepreneur’s Club also plans to work closely with the newly established QUAD (quadcos.org).
(Check out the QUAD in this edition of The Paper).
Ultimately, the club’s goal is to bring on Campus projects to fruition and show that PPCC could be self-sufficient in many ways, while leading a new generation of student business in Colorado Springs.
Warren Munick is a valuable asset to PPCC and he plans to keep innovating to provide business and economic skills to his students.
For more information about the Entrepreneur’s Club email warren.munick@ppcc.edu
