[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Creativity and innovation combined Thursday as University of Wisconsin students kicked off their attempt to make the best-valued product out of a $10 voucher in just 100 hours. Hopeful entrepreneurs entered the 100-hour Wiscontrepreneur Challenge with aims to make some cash and get hands-on experience about the world of entrepreneurship. "We came up with this notion for the [challenge] to keep the notion of entrepreneurship in front of students," said Doug Bradley of the UW Office of Corporate Relations. "It's a fun and creative to challenge their innovation, their imagination." Single students or teams were given one $10 voucher to the Surplus With a Purpose Shop, where they could purchase $10 worth of goods. The students then have 100 hours — from 6 p.m. Friday until 10 p.m. Monday — to "create something that is going to make money, going to be deemed as the most creative of an object or has the most social benefit," according to Bradley. The challenge is an effort to promote campus-wide entrepreneurship, and winners of three separate categories — most monetary value, most social value and most creative — will receive $300 per category. Descriptions of all creations will be posted on the Wiscontrepreneur website next Tuesday, and the most viewed item will receive $100 as well. UW senior Brittany Seabloom expressed excitement over the competition, which she said provides challenges with the time and money constraints. "I like the idea of taking something and completely turning it around and making it into something new," Seabloom said. "You get basically the whole weekend, so we'll see what it takes." The 100-hour Wiscontrepreneur Challenge is just one of many efforts to promote entrepreneurship campus-wide, according to Bradley. The competition is the second effort made on campus since this year. In February, students had the chance to talk with UW students and recent alumni who pursued entrepreneurial endeavors. Bradley said while about 90 percent of the entrepreneurial coursework at the university is taught through the School of Business, a strong number of entrepreneurs from UW are not business majors. "There's a larger, bigger, deeper pool of entrepreneurs everywhere," Bradley said. "We're really trying to instill on this campus, and beginning to work on, [building] an entrepreneurial climate." Participants at the kick-off meeting also heard from fellow student entrepreneur and UW men's basketball team member Jason Chappell, whose "J-Cheezy" T-shirt line has garnered strong campus interest. A personal finance major, Chappell spoke about his plans to open a full clothing line and his passion behind his business. "It's kind of about more of a thing to do for fun, and to let the business aspect grow," Chappell said. "Anytime you can be your own boss, it's a good thing." Taking his interest to the business level provides some challenges, Chappell added, as simple procedures like starting a website take many steps. "It was taking something I liked to do and trying to make a profession out of it," he said. "There's a lot of things that go into it." Such opportunities and workshops at UW were made possible through funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Every two years, the foundation allows universities from around the country to apply to become a "Kauffman Campus," a designation that also gives the chosen universities various amounts of money over a five-year span toward entrepreneurial efforts. UW was one of two schools, along with Arizona State University, to receive the maximum amount of grant funding — $5 million over a five-year span — of the nine schools receiving the title. The foundation favored the UW administration's proposal, Bradley said, which expressed a commitment to expanding entrepreneurship across the state, and not just across campus. Bradley hopes to continue fostering entrepreneurship efforts for students after the grant expires, hopefully with help from the university. "It is very ambitious," Bradley added. "I think it was a very strong sell, and I think it's going to be a very strong program." The winners of the contest will be announced April 30.