FGCU Entrepreneurship program. Room DIg A new program at Florida Gulf Coast University is giving students the opportunity to become their own boss by creating their own businesses. From finding a roommate, to making snacks for on-the-go, students have come up with intelligent ideas that could allow them to work for themselves once out of college. Jakub Adamowicz came up with Room Dig, which is an app that lets students search for roommates they feel they will be more compatible with. “We do anything from helping students find a bed or bedroom from one night to 12 months,” said Adamowicz. The app gained traction faster than Jakub anticipated, but that has only been a good thing for the company. As of now they are in the process of hiring software engineers to to help expand the brand. This is not the only business coming out of the program showing promise. Aiden Dillon has tapped into the need of dehydrated snacks that are good for on-the-go. He came up with Seaside Snacks, which offers beef jerkey, as well as dried fruits and vegetables. A big help to these companies, is that they can be awarded a grant from local donors to help expand the budget of their up and coming business. Aiden said his Seaside Snacks company was granted $5,000, which is helping him get ready to launch over the summer. The head of the entrepreneurship program is Sandra Kauanui. She believes instructors need to re-think how they teach, and instead of thinking of a business as a product, or item, she teaches students to sell solutions. “We come up with a problem and a need and they have to test it,” said Kauanui. They then design an extremely lean operation, and take advantage of social media, which makes it possible to target anyone in the world for next to nothing. Most companies we showed from the program intend to stay in Southwest Florida, and will bring more jobs to the area. Florida Gulf Coast is currently in the process of building a 27,000-square foot building on campus to expand the entrepreneurship program and to start even more local companies.