From left: Lindsey Pierret, Dennis Crokos and Jaclyn Pecchio

The ENVCC helps student teams fund and start new business ventures. The teams present their ideas to a board of investors, who evaluate the merits of the plans. Each team must demonstrate the characteristics that will make its business successful as well as show its need for funding.

Pecchio, a senior entrepreneurship major and accounting minor from Massapequa, N.Y., developed the business plan for Portion Size Me, a fast-food business that specializes in portion control. The business will have touch-screen ordering with a large selection of food choices, including options for those on special diets such as lactose- or sugar-free. All meals will be 500 calories or less. Pecchio has been working on the plan since the end of her sophomore year at Quinnipiac.

"The goal is to not limit the food choices, but to limit the portion sizes," explained Pecchio. "You can still have your cheeseburger and fries only they'll be offered to you in a healthier amount."

Pecchio is not new to business plan competitions. She had the second highest score in her division at the state business plan competition held last December at the Omni Hotel in New Haven.

After graduation this May, Pecchio said she plans to work on starting Portion Size Me in New York City.

Crokos, a junior entrepreneurship major and management minor from Garden City, N.Y., and Perriet, a junior entrepreneurship major and marketing minor from Morristown, N.J., developed a business plan for Grocery Mom, a grocery delivery service that caters to college students.

"We wanted a niche market," Crokos said.

The students also wanted to develop something that would be "recession-proof" and useful to students immediately. "This is something we could start overnight with funding," Crokos said.

The team plans to launch Grocery Mom in fall 2010. Both Crokos and Perriet said that they believe their biggest advantage for this competition is their determination and motivation.

Rowena Ortiz-Walters, adviser to the students and an associate entrepreneurship and management professor in the School of Business, said these students are role models to others in the entrepreneurship program.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for showcasing and recognizing Quinnipiac's entrepreneurship program at a national level," Ortiz-Walters said. "Thus contributing to the University's mission of national prominence."

The contest will include an eight-minute presentation of the business plan and its financials followed by a five-minute question-and-answer period from the judging panel. The final prize is a $10,000 award, which the Quinnipiac students said they would use to begin their businesses.