Emma Hayes (BBA '25) was too busy to be starstruck by the football greats arriving at Finkbine Golf Course July 11 for the first-ever Micah Hyde Charity Golf Classic.

While the players prepared to tee off, Hayes and other members of assistant professor Joe Sulentic’s social entrepreneurship class attended to last-minute event details, shuttling guests from the parking lot, ensuring the public address equipment was working properly, and otherwise helping the event run like a well-oiled machine.

“I’m going into event planning,” said Hayes, who graduated with an entrepreneurship degree this May. “I’ve been taking (Sulentic’s) classes since I was a sophomore, and this event is a perfect example of something I can apply to my real-life work.”

Sulentic’s course is the reason Micah Hyde (BS '13) returned to his alma mater. The former Pro Bowler with the Buffalo Bills credits that social entrepreneurship class offered through the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entreprenurial Center (Iowa JPEC) for inspiring him to form his Imagine for Youth Foundation, which has raised thousands of dollars for disadvantaged kids in upstate New York, Wisconsin, and now Iowa, with proceeds from the golf event going to the Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

It was an assignment to create a business plan in Sulentic’s class back in the mid-2000s that started it. Hyde said he knew right away he wanted to plan something charitable, not for-profit.

“Growing up in a small town with a mom who was a single parent—always working—it was my community that raised me,” Hyde recalled. “I understand the importance of community and how important it is to come together and support the youth, because they did that for me.”

Sulentic said that while Hyde was a stellar scholar, it was his heart that truly stood out. 

“Micah is probably the most successful social entrepreneurship student we’ve had come through in 25 years,” he said. “And even more importantly, he’s just a great guy.”

The July 11 event—which Hyde vowed to replicate in the future—went smoothly, with Hawkeye and NFL players taking part. More than 120 golfers—among them such NFL players as Desmond King II, Jay Higgins, and Jared Clauss—raised $50,000 for families of patients at the Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Sulentic said the lessons his students worked on all semester were put to good use out at Finkbine.

“We talk in class about the importance of visualizing, strategizing, and then executing, and that’s exactly what these students have done with this event,” he said. “We spent a couple of semesters strategizing what this would look like, and now they’ve seen it through.”

Brandon DePover (BA '25) earned an entrepreneurship certificate along with an engineering degree this May, and was excited to lend a hand.

DePover helped secure a sponsorship from his current employer—HNI Corporation, worked on the event’s promotional website, and helped with any last-minute needs as the golf outing got underway.

“Working this event has been amazing and will definitely be something I can point to in order to advance my career,” he said.

Check out television news coverage from the Micah Hyde Charity Golf Classic: KCRG | KGAN | KWWL