No trivial pursuit

DO YOU KNOW WHICH FLYER scored the most points in the NBA? What campus building once housed the post office? Can you identify the local voice behind a beloved character from The Simpsons?

In other words: Are you a fanatic for all things Dayton?

Enter Flight Deck Trivia, a stylish red box packed with 200 cards of fascinating facts about the University and its local area. Created by sophomore entrepreneurship major Robert Marshall, Flight Deck Trivia was influenced by his lifelong love of board games, campus lore and the many alumni in his life.

“It’s like documenting their memories and stories while filtering in our own in a tangible, entertaining way,” he explains. “It’s something all Flyers can play, which I think makes it one-of-a-kind.” 

Katie Sayeedi, a junior entrepreneurship major, pitched a story about Flight Deck Trivia to UD Magazine as part of her role as team marketer, branding the game as “trivia spanning three generations of Flyers.”

The idea, alongside other student-led ventures like campus-inspired candles and custom Dayton doormats, sprang from a year-long course for entrepreneurship students during which they establish their own micro-companies funded by a $5,000 investment from the University.

The course concludes with students re-paying the initial investment and distributing profits among team members and a charity of their choosing.

“This program is a major reason I chose UD, and it’s been incredibly eye-opening,” adds Sayeedi. “In my internship last fall, I [worked] with a client who had issues reaching people on social media, so it was cool to apply what I learned from this experience and also from the class to help.”

Sophomore entrepreneurship major Conor Atkins, who serves as the team accountant, agrees.

“We’ll learn a marketing technique, and I’ll see myself implementing those into the business,” he says. “I’m discovering what I like, what I don’t, and what helps my team … then I can use [that knowledge] in the future and know what works and what doesn’t work for me.”

The Flight Deck Trivia team is working, having sold 70 decks by early March, mostly through its website, FlightDeckTrivia.com.

Says Kate Ulepic, sophomore entrepreneurship major and team operations manager, “You just don’t get this kind of experience at other colleges.”

Answers to questions

Jim Paxson Jr. ’79 with 11,199, Heritage Coffeehouse and Nancy Cartwright.