The sweet life at FGCU: Student-led business scoops out success
- Cadence Bakker
- School of Entrepreneurship
- Contributors: Cadence Bakker, Photos and Video
5 – minute read
In Florida Gulf Coast University’s Sugden Hall kitchen, an ice cream machine whirs alongside a humming freezer. Vanilla and cherry scents float through the air as students chat and prep ingredients for the next batch. It’s just another day in the swirl of things for the newest student-run venture — the FGCU Creamery.
Under the leadership of Webb Cheshire, director of entrepreneurial ventures in the Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship, students have been learning the ropes of running a business — manufacturing, marketing and sales — since last summer. Eagles pick up relevant skills and the net profits after expenses go towards student scholarships, making the creamery a unique venture combining entrepreneurship, education and community impact.
A sweet change of pace
Originally from St. Simons Island, Georgia, Cheshire has accumulated many titles and positions over his career: restaurateur, entrepreneur, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and until recently, retiree. From managing a wholesale ice cream and popsicle company to serving in the military, his ventures have taken him across the country, ultimately leading him to Southwest Florida. His retirement plans took a different twist after a chance 2024 conversation with then-Provost Mark Rieger, who had led the launch of a creamery in a prior role at another university. Cheshire’s wife, Diana Cheshire, is dean of FGCU’s College of Education.
“At first, I was just consulting on the best way to start the operation up, and then Mark asked me to come on board and actually take over,” Cheshire says. It was a sweet change of pace that pulled him out of retirement and into the exciting opportunity of an on-campus creamery.
“I think that anyone from any school from anywhere can come and be part of a creamery and learn what they need to learn to be successful in the business world — because it’s fun.”
Churning dreams into reality
According to Cheshire, students run the show.
“They’ll be making the orders. They’ll be sending out the emails. They’ll be actually doing everything that they need to do to learn how to run a small business and be successful,” he says.
From the Sugden Hall kitchen lab, student workers make, package, label and of course, taste-test the ice creams and sorbets. They scoop their frozen treats at various campus events.
One of those students is Fort Myers native Kaci Richardson — a senior entrepreneurship major, learning the ropes of the creamery while building a bakery business out of her home. “It’s a very similar application between ice cream and desserts,” she says.
Combining her past experience in commercial kitchens, she hopes to expand into the creamery’s marketing and sales side before she graduates.
“There’s still going to be trials, but they’re always able to be overcome,” Richardson says. “It’s taught me a lot about my ability to adapt — I’ve never made ice cream.”
One of her co-workers is Julia Garcia, a double major in digital media design and art. Coupled with her restaurant service background, she’s a unique fit for the creamery. Like Richardson, she’d like to expand from production and sales to work on the creamery’s marketing. “Then I can totally apply my designing capabilities.”
Garcia’s favorite part of it all? “I really like taste-testing ice cream. It’s so much fun.”
Flavorful fun for all
Since its inception, the creamery has been experimenting with flavors of all kinds, including Snickers and coffee ice creams, and strawberry-lemon and pineapple-coconut sorbets. Many of the fruits used are locally sourced.
Garcia’s favorite flavor is cookies and cream, while Richardson prefers cherry dark chocolate chip. “Sounds a little strange, but it’s so good. Underrated for sure,” Richardson says.
It seems there’s something for everyone at the FGCU Creamery, with a lineup that includes gluten-free and dairy-free sorbet options.
What’s in store for future flavors? Besides what Cheshire dubs the “fantastic five” (vanilla, chocolate, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip and strawberry cream), the creamery will soon introduce its signature flavor — the Eagle’s Nest. Cheshire calls it “a delectable blend” of flavors mixed with pretzels, cookies and cream, and cookie dough.
The cherry on top
For Cheshire, the cherry on top of the whole venture is providing a valuable education for his student workers and “making lives better for students and the community.” After operating costs are covered, all profits go into student scholarships. “We’re here to help at-need students on campus,” he says, including veterans and FGCU R.I.S.E. students.
His five-year plan for the creamery includes scaling up production and moving it out of the kitchen lab into its own facility, where he hopes students can start making ice cream cakes, cookies and milkshakes. “All the great things you go into a creamery for, that I know will be very successful here on campus.”
Sounds like a sweet future ahead for FGCU’s creamery.
Eagles interested in paid positions, service-learning opportunities or internships at the creamery should contact Webb Cheshire at [email protected].